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More notes at the end...
Disclaimer: I don't own Underworld nor any of its beautiful characters.
Chapter 11 - First, Last, and Lost Times
The Present
The doors to Selene's quarters trembled in their hinges as the furious queen wrenches the handles open from the inside. She emerged, hot white fire in her eyes, which Varga almost doesn't see as she just shot out a command, "stay here," with barely a glance in his direction. But all the same she did a double take when she notices Eve over his shoulder.
She abruptly stops her tormented flight.
"Eve." Selene's voice softens for a while as she walks slowly this time over to them. "I'm sorry, I…" He could feel her suppressed anger as she fights off her natural instinct to flee to god knows where without explanation. If her daughter wasn't here Varga was certain she would have done it by now.
Although it wouldn't be the first time Selene has totally forgotten that she had a daughter.
"Your father's in there but he's – he's unconscious." She closes her eyes for a moment, clearly trying to compose herself in front of Eve – she didn't have to know and what she doesn't know won't kill her. When she opens them again they were still in their hybrid white. He has only ever seen her once with eyes as such and it terrified him now as it did him then.
"I want you to be very brave now, do you understand?" Selene continues, cradling her daughter's face.
Eve nods obediently but doesn't speak.
"Watch over your father while I…I have some business to attend to."
One nasty business, Varga can't help but think. He touches the handle of his sword on his side, mentally preparing himself for what he knows will come.
"What if he wakes up?" The panic in Eve's voice was evident and he couldn't fault her.
Of course the child was nervous. Varga was quite familiar with the tale of how Selene had reacted the moment she discovered she has a daughter – one she didn't even remember giving birth to. Or didn't know she was pregnant with, he contemplates.
"Then he'll think he's in heaven if the very first thing he sees is you." Selene gives her daughter a smile, a genuine one.
Varga looks away, trying to give them some privacy.
"Is he alright, mom?" Eve asks, finally letting out her worry.
"He will be. And I'll make sure he stays that way."
Someone's going to have his bones crushed tonight.
"Now go on inside, my love."
Eve does as she was told and Varga puts in a word before Selene could command him again.
"Don't even try to persuade me not to follow you." He says firmly.
"Varga–"
"I'm not leaving you, Selene. Not with those eyes you have right now. It can only mean trouble."
It turns out it's David that will have his bones crushed tonight.
The vampire was now spitting huge amounts of blood as he was on his knees in front of Selene.
Before she could hurt him again, he begs for mercy. "Selene...Please–"
She takes hold of him by the throat, singlehandedly lifting him off the floor, and then she throws him at one of the low-hanged chandeliers.
It was a spectacle and a nightmare for the vampires of the Eastern Coven. Selene was infamous for her ruthlessness but she had never hurt anyone, not since that battle with Marius and the Lycans. And even before then the wrath of the most powerful immortal alive was only ever been heard of, and never been witnessed. Until tonight.
"Talk while you can. You've got two seconds."
Only two seconds. Because that was how short it took for her to almost fly to him again. And David only just responded, and weakly.
"I–It was only for self defense. Please, Selene–"
Most of the Death Dealers were here now, having been from the training grounds below. They stood watch, weapons held in arms and aimed at their queen. Varga has long held out his sword too – everyone knew where his loyalties lie – but he doesn't need to give out an order. Nobody will ever dare to face Selene.
And so everyone in the ballroom held their breath.
Selene lifts David again, and this time carries him – still with a death grip on his neck – and slams his body on a wall, all without releasing her hold. She does this two more times before letting him fall down to the floor, along with the debris from the smashes on the dark concrete. David was shaking and coughing out uncontrollably, trying desperately to seep in air back into his broken lungs. If the blood of Selene wasn't flowing through his veins he would have died right now.
Varga runs over to them, slowing and stopping right behind his queen. Only he heard her say:
"That would be the first and the last time you will hurt him. Do you hear me, David?"
When her mother comes back from wherever she had gone to earlier, father was still asleep.
Selene, who was now more…in control, goes to her and kisses the top of her head. Eve looks at her mother in the eyes and sees anger and resentment there.
She also smells blood.
She has hurt someone.
Eve decides to let her mother be for now, especially as she sees her now watching her beloved Michael.
The kiss was Selene's way of saying thank you, Eve believes, for not only did she stay true to her word that she'd watch over her father, she had also cleaned and dressed his wounds.
Selene walks closer, over to the side of the bed where Michael was, and collapses on a nearby chair. She was asleep not long after.
It wasn't how she had imagined them all three reuniting alright, but nonetheless, Eve felt very happy right now. She smiles openly from where she currently sat – on the hard, rotating chair of her mother's makeshift office – as she watches her parents asleep together.
Eve has also fallen asleep and wakes up sometime later, to see her father sitting on the bed.
He was staring intently at a sleeping Selene.
Eve had to clamp a hand over her mouth to stop a surprised gasp from escaping and drawing attention to herself. Never had she felt like an intruder inside her mother's chambers.
But she was now.
Michael was caught up in a whole other world of his own as he watches her mother with such affection that Eve was sure Selene must be melting from his gaze right now. Her father reaches out a hand and gently brushes away her mother's hair from her face. A scowl forms Selene's features from the touch.
Eve hears her father chuckle for the very first time and she giggles silently with him. Oh, mom.
He doesn't know I'm here, Eve thinks. Her mother's desk wasn't that far from the enormous bed but father must have seen her mother first when he had woken up, and since then had disregarded everyone or anything else that might be inside the room.
And so Eve continues being invisible to him as she now witnesses another swoon-worthy act from her father.
Michael moves forward to stand in front of Selene. Then he slowly bends down and gathers her in his arms. Still having her signature scowl on, her mother stirs but doesn't fully wake. One of her hands wounds its way over to father's broad and bare shoulder though, unknowingly helping him hug her closer to his chest.
And unknowingly, father is fulfilling all of my dreams of him and mother together come true.
He smiles at the woman now in the safety of his arms and lays a soft kiss on her head before settling her gently back down on the bed.
"How did you know she likes to be on the right side?"
It was lucky he had already laid Selene down when the voice from somewhere behind startles him.
Michael turns his head and was no less than shocked to see his own eyes staring at him.
The girl, no, a young woman, who also has a face very much like the one who he had just put on the bed, was sat behind a desk across the room.
"Hello." She speaks again, filling in the silence that has settled in after she asked the question out of nowhere. Then, as though testing the word on her tongue for the very first time: "Father."
Michael forgets to breathe then. He could only gaze open mouthed at the girl.
Slowly, he walks toward where she was.
She called me father. That could only mean…
"He–Hello." He stutters back a few moments later, heart punching its way through his chest, or gut, or...whatever. He still could hardly breathe. A million thoughts – questions – were struggling to take hold of his sanity.
He focuses on staring straight at the girl's eyes. Very much like his own. He tries to ignore the rest of her. I cannot handle that right now.
Cautiously, Michael looks back at Selene's sleeping form, silently willing her to…what? Wake up and rescue him again from fainting? Because at this moment, he wasn't that far from losing his consciousness again.
He turns back to the girl, his daughter, and takes a gulp before asking, "What's your name?"
"Eve," she says just as nervously. "My name is Eve."
"Hello...Eve."
The girl smiles and Michael was overcome with such…emotion. He was feeling so much all at once. The smile was unfamiliar compared to the rest of her face – the face of Selene – but it was that one small act that rendered him not merely speechless, but unable to feel anything but pure, unadulterated affection. He reaches for her the same time she moves toward him and they met halfway.
He held her in his arms like he had never held anybody before, burying his face in her dark hair, breathing her in, his child.
His and Selene's child.
Eve was crying right now and so he pulls away, and tries to soothe her. "Hey, hey. Look at me." He brushes her tears away as he cradles her beautiful face. "I'm here." He kisses her forehead. "I'm here now."
Her daughter gives him another smile through her tear streaked face and engulfs him in another hug.
There are two things Michael now knows for certain.
He will never leave this child.
He knows in his heart he will never have so much love for another ever again as he did now, holding this girl in his arms.
His daughter.
His and Selene's only child. With his eyes and her beautiful face.
And that he will do everything in his power to keep her from harm.
Both of them.
(Much, much later…)
Selene and Michael were kissing in the hallway.
It was his doing this time. Even before this inevitable second kiss happened Selene has noticed how he has been finding any passable excuse just to talk to her, to seek her otherwise preoccupied attention – having your lycan lover come back from the dead does not rid a queen of her duties – and of course trail behind her incessantly and pathetically ("Oh, you were going to the Armory too?" She has a strong suspicion he doesn't even know where the Armory was.) like a lost puppy, hoping, she firmly believes, for an opportunity to have her alone all to himself. Which was ridiculous because he does absolutely nothing when they're in bed together every single night.
It was driving her bat-shit crazy. Pun very much intended.
What was he playing at? She would find it endearing if her very own feelings were not on the line. Having accepted the hard truth that he had no real memory of her, save for a few vague dreams, nor of their time together before Antigen happened – regardless of how short it had been, she has resolved to distance herself from him for the time being. No matter how loathe she was to admit that there was some part of her that longed for him to...fall in love with her again, the real her, the one who had walls thicker than ice bricks and a temper shorter than the number of color choices of her wardrobe. She wanted him to love the leather-wearing, ruthless werewolf hunter, damn it, and if that was selfish than so be it.
It was appearing to be very hard, she realizes not long after, but nothing she hasn't done before. In truth this was how she really was when she first caught Michael's attention – an unfeeling, distant centuries-old vampire.
The challenge was in not seeking his touch. It was in letting go all too soon after an off guard embrace. It was remembering to breathe from his lingering looks, all across any room, the ones that burn right through her long held barriers. The challenge was her not falling madly in love with him. It was supposed to be the other way around, damn it, Selene. The worst of these useless, self-imposed rules, was that sometimes, she just couldn't help herself.
She was chasing him chasing her.
And so after several seconds of submission to a searing kiss, she pushes him gently by the chest and says very firmly: "I need to–" Except she doesn't finish as he was kissing her again. Stubborn hands now moved from cradling her face to burying them in her hair, twisting her head in altering angles as he deepens the kiss even more. He was now unconsciously trying to rut against her body as he pushes her gently against a wall.
Selene was trapped.
Her lycan had very obvious insatiable needs. She wasn't that stupid not to know Michael only acted out of the profound, compulsive – and sometimes needless – wants of men. And who better to satisfy this thirst than the very mother of his child? She was nothing more than a convenience to him and…it breaks her a little inside.
Pushing him off with more force this time, she looks at him pointedly, stop, as she catches her breath.
She regrets doing so the moment she sees his face fall.
"What's wrong?"
"Nothing. I just…"
He was moving away slowly now, giving her breathing space but his hands wound their way to her lower back and linger there, sending shivers down her barely touched and actually covered skin.
"Did I do something wrong? Would you…Don't you want me to do something like this?"
Yes. "No. No, no no. I just…It's just that I really have something to do right now and…You caught me off guard, that's all."
Except that wasn't really all.
I want you to ask me what I want. I want you to hold me because you need me, that you need to hear the sound of my breathing against your own, to convince yourself that this is not a dream anymore. Tell me you need me, Michael. You need me because you love me.
He visibly relaxes. "I thought you could use the distraction." Then he smiles, unaware of her inner torment. "You've been…working so much these past few days."
"Oh. Well," She needs to get out of here before she breaks down in front of him. "Thank you, but I really didn't need it."
She doesn't wait for his response to her cold words and leaves him standing there.
She also doesn't hear him whisper, "I know," echoing Selene's own words from lifetimes ago, as he remembers how she had chosen him, how she had chosen to disobey Viktor's orders and save him. He remembers how she threw away the only life she ever knew, breaking all the rules there ever was...just to be with him.
Selene doesn't see him stare at her retrieving form with such longing, so much history, and dreams of their future together in his eyes.
She doesn't see the exact moment Michael starts falling in love with her all over again.
Juliana: Thank you so much for reading! Haha. Watch out for the upcoming chapters for that. *wink*
Spring: Oh my gosh. Thank you! I'm so happy you think so. I'm always so nervous writing them in character because well, it's the hardest thing to do with these things..LOL. And yes, protective!Selene is such a lkjdfhgkjdfgh haha
AmericanWildDog: AHH, I LOVE VARGA SO MUCH TOO. And I always look forward to your long ass reviews! Haha. Thank you for not failing me ever. :)