I have never written a chapter so quickly.. I hope it doesn't come out looking like it was half a*** because it was only ever made out of pure love. :P Enjoy! And please review if you want to. I would really appreciate any feedback. :)

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

Chapter 7 - Through A Corvin's Eye

The way to the most guarded fortress of the vampires was full of humungous trees. They formed a forest with ground untouched by the sun. Michael can only imagine what it was like from the outside now. The sun was above the horizon, but its heat has yet to creep in through the morning air. The chill of the pre-dawn has remained.

David, the man with eyebrows that unnerved even a man like Michael, was silent as he led them through the thick woods. There was nothing about him that can indicate he was capable of leading an army, much less that of the most renowned Death Dealer alive. Still, he couldn't help being impressed if anything else. David had no large force and was in fact only accompanied by five vampires, all fully garbed in black leather – creatures of the night and ninjas in the daylight. It was almost comical if it wasn't so tragic.

What could it be like, he ponders, to walk forever in darkness with the light just within reach? Every single day these immortals know the sun would rise and every single time it did they would have to resist it.

Did Selene want to be in the dark? His thoughts clouds over. If he was her long lost love…or long lost anything for that matter, why had she let him be taken away? Why have they been separated? Why was he left to be raised as an animal by the humans? How many rules did the great vampiress break to be with him...Why did she go into so much trouble in the first place when in the end she still let him go? These thoughts left Michael's head reeling, if there was even half the truth to it all.

She left you, Michael, the more rational part of his mind insists. She left you with nothing but a few dreams. Vivid though they were, they confused him more, mere vignettes that are closer to mean nothing.

And what about her daughter? Is the hybrid child mine?

The daughter of Selene was known to the Sundals as the child of the devil, a creature whose birth was an anomaly even to her kind, both vampires and lycans. If the child was his as much it was hers, why has he no memory of her at all? Even of Selene, he remembers her through memories formed by his subconscious, tethered to reality only when he's asleep.

Michael was not entirely ignorant of course. He knew most of those who were turned had been given no choice. Most were only victims of the war that had spanned over centuries between the immortals, they were simply caught in the unending crossfire. But still there were turnings...of the more personal, more intimate kind. Michael has heard women from the camp romanticize the very turning of the vampires. Naturally, he scoffed at them alongside Katie because it was easier that way.

"Some of them choose who they turn. It's true. The lycans imprint, almost instinctively, it's more of their nature but the vampires...Oh, those sexy blood suckers...they simply fall in love."

Michael can feel his heart pounding now. There were lesser trees on the path they're taking and in a not so far distance, he catches a glimpse of what can only be the highest towers of a castle. They were nearing the Eastern Coven.

It was absurd to think of Selene turning him. He was a lycan and she a vampire. If they shared something it was only the desire to kill the other. If they had once fallen in love…Well, that thought was even more ridiculous if Michael was being honest with himself. She was cold as ice. In all of his dreams of her she had smiled once, and that was near the end of… And what about him? Michael has only ever loved one woman all his life. And she left him too soon, before their life together can even begin. There was nothing he could do back then, only to watch as his entire world struggled to draw her last breath. The memory of it and all the times they had together used to keep him awake at night but now...it just left him empty.

"I don't need much of anything except you."

Michael shakes his head and looks around for a distraction. Why is it so quiet, he thinks, glancing at his men. They looked so much younger without their weapons. He lets their silent anger calm his nerves, something to stop him hearing the loud hammering inside his chest. Of course their grudge toward him was uncalled for. The orders were clear – surrender to Selene. They're just disappointed he let them all be taken without a proper fight. The lycans were humiliated more so than anyone else. Never mind that, he can deal with wounded egos. It was still so much better than carry corpses.

He turns around again to watch David in front of him. There was a certain calm about the vampire that was sending Michael over the edge. He could be leading us into a trap for all I know.

"What's your name?"

He almost misses the question. It came out more of a grunt.

"Michael."

David stops walking so abruptly that he almost bumps into him. The vampire turns slowly, faces him, a dark expression on his face. He was staring at Michael like he was seeing him for the very first time. Then very quietly he asks, "Corvin?"

How–? Without waiting for his answer, David pushes him with such impact that he stumbles backward to the ground, all the air knocked out of him. Shocked more than badly injured, he was on his knees a moment later, looking up to the strong vampire who has now pulled out a gun from his side. He shoots somewhere behind Michael.

Michael clutches his chest, still kneeling on the cold ground, as he struggled to catch his breath again. He was coughing from the effort of trying to breathe normally again, only barely managing to take in the sight before him.

All of the other vampires had fallen to the ground. Purple blue liquid, and tiny sparks – fireworks, burst from within them. It all but consumed them whole, inside out.

No.

The Sundals got they wanted. The vampires burned before them.

—

"Mom?"

"Yes, Eve?"

"Do you think...Am I pretty?"

Selene lowers her bow, and takes a long look at her daughter. "You are beautiful, my love," she says gently.

"Really?" Eve has never sounded so uncertain. "But, how can you tell?"

"Well…" Be very careful now. "For one thing, you are your father's daughter."

This caught Eve's interest. She's lowered her bow now too, then sets it on the floor and moves closer to her mother. "Was he really attractive?"

With a sigh, Selene motions Eve for them to sit on one of the cold metal benches of the training room. Despite not being good with expressing her feelings, she's long found out that she can tell her daughter just about anything and everything she wanted to hear. And so she tells her the night that had started it all, a story she has told her a hundred times now. It was Eve's favorite just as much as it was hers. That, Selene thinks, I'll never tell her. "In my six hundred years of existence never once did I allow myself to get distracted during a Death Dealer operation. It just wasn't possible. Your father proved me wrong of course. My attention was indeed capable of...doing something else. Like wandering off and staring at ruggedly handsome men."

Eve giggles. Always on cue. "God, I'll never tire of this story."

"He was drenched from the rain," Selene continues, now with a sad smile. "And when he swept his hair back from his face I…I just knew I was done for."

Eve sighs beside her, hands over knees that are tucked under her chin.

Selene playfully pats her nose. "Not that I knew that back then of course."

"Of course." Eve rolls her eyes, mischievous grin now on her lips. Then: "Oh, mom. It's just so…romantic." She smiles at her, a content look on her face.

Selene smiles back but averts her eyes quickly, heart constricting from a pain she's familiar with, a pain that has kept her company during most nights and even in the quiet of her mornings. One that she rarely feels when she's with Eve, that is until she looks at her eyes. Michael's eyes.

It was funny, how everyone keeps saying that Eve looks exactly like her. A compliment or otherwise, Selene couldn't quite see the resemblance. She turns her attention back to her daughter, tucks a stray hair behind one ear. Then she kisses her forehead. "Do you want to wash up so we can have dinner early?"

"No..not now anyway." She stops her fussing. "Tell me again the first time you kissed father."

"Eve…"

"Please? Come on, mom. That moment hasn't been told enough like the train sta–argh!" Eve clutches her head suddenly. She screamed, face contorting from obvious pain. She shuts her eyes, willing the for it to go away.

"Eve! What's wrong? Look at me!" Selene holds her by the arms with urgency, falling to the ground on her knees in front of her daughter.

"I…" For a few excruciating moments, they stayed like that, both breathing heavily. Eve slowly opens her eyes. They were unseeing, scanning something that wasn't there. Her mouth was slightly open, as if wanting to say something but couldn't. She looks down at her mother.

"Talk to me, Eve. Please...You're scaring me, love." Selene was slowly crying now, small tears rolling down her cheeks. She reaches out to cradle her daughter's jaw, forcing her gaze toward her. Eve's eyes stilled and finally stared back at her as a beat later, she says very quietly: "He's here."

Selene's throat tightens without a reason. She blinks the tears away from her eyes. "Who, love? Who?" Then, with more courage, "Remember what I've always told you? Mother will never let any harm come to you. Never again." She takes another deep breath before she continues. I need to let her know that she's safe. "Let them come. Whoever they are, I will face them. Do you hear me, Eve?"

There was no mistaking the change in Eve's expression as she cried openly now. But it wasn't tears of sorrow nor of fear. Her eyes shined, smiling almost. Now it was her who raises both of her hands to cup her mother's face, brushing its last few tears away. Her mouth forms a smile, looking so much more like a child than anything else.

"Father is here," she whispers.