This time Angel answered my call. "Xander every lawyer phone in this place is lit like a Christmas tree. Everyone's talking about the Death Dealer and the Lycan what is going on?"

"Someone put a bounty out on Super Lycan and The Death Dealer. They have Selene but Michael is safe for now. I'm on my way to get him."

He cut me off. "No way Xander not you. I can have a team on the ground in a few hours we will get this guy off the streets. "

I had visions of Wolfram and Hart hit squads scouring the streets searching for the fleeing couple. "Not an option Angel, if your guys come storming in the like Navy Seals The Bad guys will kill Selene. "

"She's a Death Dealer, " he snapped, like that was enough reasoning for him to abandon her maybe for him it was.

I had to take my stand no matter the cost. "Michael is in love with her. If she is iced; he's gone and who knows what happens to him after that "

Silence reigned from the other side of the line. Arguing with Angel's mind is a waste of breath so I tried arguing with the only other part of him that does the thinking…his soul.

"The only reason either of them has lasted this long is because they have never abandoned each other .are you going to make him choice between his life and his love now."

"Shut it Xander, I'm not the weepy angst-filled pushover you knew and loathed. Wes and Gunn will pick you both up. Scope the situation, if you aren't 100 percent sure you can pull her out safe; get out and take him with you." He then audibly sighed in frustration. A great trick since he doesn't breath "Those two have made some enemies, powerful enemies. I for one would feel safer if the only thing standing between them wasn't you."

I hung up and called Michael and within hours, I was outside the motor lodge that had been their temporary base. He was pacing like…well like a caged animal. If anything he looked even more haggard then when I had seen him a week ago. The wild tangle of his hair had grown a lot in just the few days obviously, his body chemistry was adjusting to his new sate of being.

He and Selene had been running since they had smuggled themselves from Europe. They had settled briefly in a big city while Selene made inquires trying to find out how deeply in crap they really were. Michael had spent a week crawling up the walls of a hotel room before he had insisted on doing something to fill the hours while the star-crossed lovers waited for word of their fate. Thus, he conned his way into the job at the clinic where we had met. Michael had been using what few connections he still had to the mundane world to score supplies including blood for Selene. However, once they had surfaced those who were looking for them kept an eye on the blood banks and slaughterhouses. In the end, the time spent on the run or hiding from their pursuers had taken its toll. They had fought bitterly. I could see why. Until she had met him, she was a Death Dealer. Feared and respected hunter of Lycans and all other threats to the vampire community. He had been on his way to a Brilliant career in medicine. Now he might never be a doctor, his warring bestial nature insured he would know no peace. Haunted by both extremes in what Oz and now Michael assured me was one hell of a seven-course donnybrook. Waged by creatures so used to killing each other that the idea of an end of hostilities was more frightening then the war they fought. His life as he had known it was over and his only compensation was a woman who would have been better off if she had never met him.

Michael and I headed for a desolate spot in the meat packing district.. "The only way this could be more of a set up is if they had neon signs and spotlights" I whispered to Michael

He was still fretting. "What if they hurt her?"

"They won't if they know what's good for them. They need her in good condition to show off to you. Plus if the vamp clans are really as hot to get their claws on you as I've been hearing, then they will need her vertical in order to collect on the bounty."

As we watched the building a car came through the main gates and a slender pale figure got out. Michael gasped in recognition I clamped my hand over his mouth even as the figure paused and looked around. Apparently, sounds carried over the yard. I saw the longhaired Lastat look-a-like gaze around the yard before disappearing inside. "That was close Michael, when we are trying to avoid being killed, we use our quiet voices OK."

"What the hell is he doing here."

"Who is he."

"His name is Kraven and to hear him tell it; he was Selene's intended. She hated him. I think he was responsible for the betrayal and murder of the one of the leaders of Selene's Clan

"Curiousier and curiousier said Alice." I muttered

"The bastard shot me." Micheal insisted. His rage was pliable

"I'm guessing your going to want to make an issue out of that aren't you." I muttered quietly

"He shot me at point blank range---repeatedly." He stressed

I nodded. "I thought as much -- this rescue just got a lot more complicated."

I knew the burning look in his eyes Michael Corvin wanted payback. If I followed him like he was now I might lose more then an eye, A lot more.

***