I'm so sorry for the late update! And I would just like to thank everyone who has followed, faved and left a review! Special shoutout to AmericanWildDog :)
Sadly, I don't own Underworld nor any of its beautiful characters. Though I'd like nothing more than to have the power to bring back the gorgeous Scott Speedman to play Michael again.
Chapter 4 - Cold Hell
It was nearing midday but the sun in this frozen part of the world only ever touches the horizon. The perfect sanctuary for any vampire. After disembarking at the railway station, Eve asks Selene if they could go on foot. I want to see the sky lights, her daughter had implored.
"You can see it too while riding, love."
"Yes, but we won't enjoy it just as much."
"We'll arrive sooner by horse. Besides, aren't you excited to see your Aunt Lena?" The hybrid has taken a liking to the mysterious vampiress, making Selene a bit jealous. Not that she was going to admit it. The third of the new Elders decided to go back to her coven instead of staying in the Eastern one, much to her daughter's dismay. And so frequent visits have been arranged for them to see each other. Eve is always welcomed in their place but this was the first time Selene has allowed her to go instead of Lena visiting them.
Eve was quiet now, undoubtedly contemplating the best choice between walking to see the lights better or riding her way faster to her Aunt Lena. Her daughter then turns to her, with her father's doe-eyes searching hers. Oh no. She wasn't even trying to look like that to get what she wants because she really did have those set of eyes. It was easily the most precious thing in Selene's world. She knows in her heart she would kill if those eyes asked her to.
"Alright," Selene says with a heavy sigh and then leads them the way.
The way to Cold Hell, she thinks with a shiver. But it wasn't from the winter breeze that accompanies them on their journey.
If I am wrong about this, and please by the Saints, let me be not, then I have put Eve in unnecessary danger.
"A nut for your thoughts, your grace?" Varga walks to her side, holding out what appears to be actual nuts in his hand.
"What are those?"
"Almonds. They're very tasty. Not to mention they make your teeth do something other than the constant chattering."
"How..." Selene starts, watching him with an incredulous look on her paler than normal face. "Human food is lethal to us immortals."
"Ah! That's what you think – what everyone thinks." He retorts, sounding matter-of-factly.
"What do you mean that's what everyone thinks? It's a long established fact." She was no longer amused, having thought of a complication which can arise from his idiocy. "If you think I'm the least bit willing to drag your convulsing body all the way to the – we're on a mission here for God's sake!" She shouts and stops, realizing too late what she had just said.
"Oh. There it goes." His face darkens and he crosses his arms. You can't put anything past this man. "So, this is really a mission then? Just a secret one."
"Varga–"
"Selene." He sighs. "If you just trust me–"
"Trust you?!" It was good Eve and the three Death Dealers were now long ahead of them. She cannot do quiet aggravation.
It wasn't true though. She did trust Varga, to an extent, but she'd be a fool to let him know that. For a start, she doesn't even know why she does. "You almost killed me not so long ago!"
"Yes, and then you made me your right hand man not long after!" Both of them were now flushed from their short-lived squabble, heavy puffs of air going out of their mouths as they struggled to breathe normally again. Well, as normal as inhaling and exhaling ice to one's lungs can be.
"I'm sorry," Varga says softly, calm again. He seems to remember himself. He uncrosses his arms and wraps them instead around his torso. "But I need to know why we're here. Why your daughter is being paraded around in open field, with only four abled men, and her angry, secretive mother to protect her." He has inched closer to her, almost ready to...huddle for warmth? And the most absurd thing is that she has half a mind to allow him if he did. It was that cold.
She lets out the second heavy sigh she's had today, grabs the crumpled paper from her sleeve and forces it onto his hands. He reads it dutifully, thick eyebrows furrowing. Then, he looks at her.
"Why keep this from Eve?"
"I don't want to disappoint her if it would all just lead to nothing. Again." She says simply, watching her daughter from a distance. She was gazing up at the sky. The Northern Lights were now closer, their glow more distinctive and feels almost reachable. A little walk farther now and they'll be able to see the cliff where the castle stood. Eve was far enough to be rescued from immediate danger but close enough to run to the Nordic Coven if Selene and Varga were attacked first.
Eve would sense if her father was near. She would see through his eyes. That was what Selene counted on. She hoped she herself would know if Michael was close. She knows she would, she thinks, comforting herself with the lie. But right now, she feels nothing but the cold. Even with her white fur cape on, she feels her undead body frosted to the last bit of skin, covered or otherwise.
"She has the right to know you're looking for Michael," Varga insists. "He's her father."
"I know that. Don't you think I know that?"
Varga doesn't reply but just stares at her. Then out of nowhere: "At the start of the 18th century, I started a little…experiment. Let's call it that. I missed eating whatever I loved eating when I was still human–"
"Varga. I appreciate the distraction but really?"
"Just hear me out."
"Christ above," Selene whispers, rolling her eyes, but she listens to him nonetheless. As if she had any choice.
"As your trusted…servant, I am going to let you in on a secret."
Selene just looks at him, hoping her cold gaze will bore him enough to shut him up.
"Alcohol."
"What?"
"We can drink. Personally, I favor wine among others. I vomit out blood on the third cup but hey," he takes a pause, smiling widely at her now. "You're more powerful than us mere immortals. You can probably down a whole bottle."
Then it happens.
She feels the sudden change in the atmosphere before the chaos even began. There was something odd about how she knows, feels, an imminent threat even before it can get her. Something only a true Death Dealer knows intuitively from the many hours spent hunting danger itself. And now she's the one being hunted.
Varga looks at her, taking in the fear in her eyes.
No.
Selene clutches his arm, mouth agape. He obeys the unsaid command with a nod, and unsheathes something from his side that she can only expect to be a gun. Instead he wields a long silver sword which he swings at the incoming bullets.
Jesus, how stupid can he be?! He's going to die!
She leaves him anyway, trusting the man who had paralyzed her with nightshade. Yeah, he's got it alright.
She then runs to her daughter, waving a frozen hand to catch her attention. It was obvious they were outnumbered and she can think of only one way to escape, only one place. We bring nothing but trouble to that bloody coven, god damn it. I'm sorry, Lena. They really should have taken the horses.
Selene sees Eve transform for the very first time. She knew what was happening. Before her eyes, her daughter reverts to her most primal state faster than any Lycan Selene has ever seen. Not a single silver bullet was needed to trigger the change, what with the Corvinus blood flowing inside her. The most powerful Hybrid alive then calls out to her mother with a screech, "Mom!"
It wasn't long before the armed men were rushing to Eve instead of her. There were about two dozens of them, maybe even more, and she thinks – hopes – there were more of them. Hell, she could take a hundred right now, she realizes with a start. I fucking missed this.
They must have been ordered to deliver her daughter unarmed because they weren't shooting at her. This is why about ten feet from where her daughter was standing, ripping out a soldier's insides, Selene stops running. She could have gotten to her in a blink of an eye – she had that power. But she chose to run instead because it's important to her to feel her blood, immortal it may be, scorching hot rushing throughout her frozen veins.
It's important to her that she hasn't forgotten how it feels to fight.
She pulls out an old friend from her leather boots, her Beretta 92FS, the only thing that will never let her down, and shoots every single armed man in the head with the grace of a Death Dealer – none.
Tomorrow, she thinks, I will regret this. Tomorrow she will be the sorriest old fool for putting Eve's life at risk, and for what? Tomorrow can go fuck itself. Today she was going to do the one thing she's good at. The only thing she was reborn to do. This was Selene's last thought as she wipes something wet away from her cheeks. It wasn't blood.
She reloads her gun, and lets go of the hope of seeing Michael again.