Author's Note: Sorry this took so long, I wanted to make this one a bit longer than the others. Also, my dumb brother would NOT get off. Please review! Especially if you want me to post the next chapter. Reviews make me happy, and happy writers write faster. Criticism is welcome too!!
Disclaimer: Still don't own anything. I write for pleasure, not profit.
Chapter 2: Settling In
Kestral, the red-haired, green-eyed Scots woman who had been at the night's meeting, had offered to share her room with Selene until Xavier decided on a job for her and gave her a room in the manor.
Kestral's room was surprisingly elegant. Two twin beds were pushed against the opposite walls, each covered in thick green comforters and gold throw pillows. The walls were a beautiful shade of cream that seemed to increase the space of the room. The furniture was all made of dark cherry wood.
Kestral sat on one bed, while Selene looked around.
"Nice," she said, gazing at the spying equipment on the desk. Kestral wondered if she was talking about the room or the computers. She leaned back on her hands and waited for the question she knew was coming.
Selene did not disappoint. She turned to Kestral and asked, "Why are you renegade?"
Without missing a beat, Kestral returned with, "Why did you kill Viktor?"
Selene didn't answer, only turned to the other bed and began piling the throw pillows neatly on the floor. Kestral smiled to herself, pleased she had deflected the question so easily. She crawled under the sheets of her bed, and flipped the hidden switch that turned off the lights.
"'Night," she said, and began laughing, because, of course, it was day. Selene allowed herself a smile before drifting off to sleep.
Michael dressed quickly, hoping to catch Selene's scent outside before it got too faint. Once outside, he looked around, and, seeing no one, let his fangs elongate and his eyes blacken, but maintained his human body. He sniffed the air, testing it, trying to discern which way Selene had gone. But instead of the distinct, vampire scent of Selene, he smelt the dark musk of lycan. A growl escaped his throat, and three lycans stepped out of the shadows. All three were in their human form, but the change was close upon them. It would not take much for them to release their tense hold on a human appearance and become bestial.
"Michael," said Raze's deep voice, penetrating the peaceful darkness of the early morning. Michael forced himself into human form so he could speak more easily.
"I know what you want, Raze," he said. "But can't it wait at least until morning? I have to find Selene." Raze looked at Michael's desperate expression and was reminded forcibly of Lucian immediately after Sonja's death. Using the tactic that had worked best on Lucian, reasonability, Raze said, "Lucian is dead Michael. Without a leader, the vampires will wipe us out."
Michael, in his desperation to find Selene, responded, "Then you lead them. I have to find Selene."
Raze took several steps forward, until he was almost nose-to-nose with Michael. They were so close, Michael could see the barely visible scars on Raze's face from his fight with Soren in the den.
"You would sacrifice our entire species for the sake of one vampire," Raze said quietly, his dark voice full of contempt.
Michael brought his hand up and closed it around Raze's throat at the insult to Selene.
"You may be quick, hybrid, but I am older, stronger," Raze told him. "Choose to fight me, and I will win." Michael slowly released Raze's throat and stepped back.
"Alright," he said.
Kestral walked down the hall, following the screams she heard. Her footsteps were slow, but sure. In one hand, she held her father's sword. She reached her baby sister's room, and a gruesome sight greeted her. The walls were splattered with the blood of her parents, whose bodies now lay, dead and bloodless, on the floor. A tall man now stood over the baby's crib, holding the screaming nanny still with one powerful arm. Blood from cuts on her face and her arms stained her nightgown a ruby color. Her neck was clean on the right side, except for two small punctures which oozed blood. Kestral lifted the sword and walked purposefully into the room. The tall man turned and easily plucked the sword from her hand and knocked her to the ground, without once loosening his grip on the nanny. He turned back to the screeching woman in his arms and plunged his teeth into her neck and drank from her body until she stopped screaming and turned white and bloodless. Kestral stayed frozen where she'd fallen, watching in horror as the man turned to her. He pulled her up from the floor and sank his elongated canines into the creamy skin of her neck.
But even at sixteen, Kestral was strong, and she fought. The tall man, surprised, released her. She tore away, grabbing the sword from the floor as she ran from the room. She fled down the hall to her own room, turning the key in the lock and began piling as much furniture as she could against the door. Her heart beat hard in her chest as she felt the wound on her neck. Stories of ancient and evil creatures filled her mind and it fixed upon the story of the vampyre. The creature whose footsteps now came down the hall towards her room was a vampyre, she knew. And when it bit her, it had turned her into one of its kind. In a day or two, her heart would cease to beat, her lungs to fill with air, and her skin would burn at the touch of sunlight. She would grow cold, like ice, and her skin would never warm again. At these thoughts, tears filled her eyes, and she collapsed on the floor, weeping, as the door began to quiver and shake as the creature outside her door attempted to enter.
Kestral woke, shaking and crying silently. That night had been terrible for her. Though it had been well over six hundred years ago, and she had made peace with what she was, each time she dreamed, the horror and shame of the night she'd been turned came back in full force. She curled on her side, ignoring the tears that still fell, and tried to fall back asleep.
Selene was not asleep long before she woke again, wide awake. There was someone in the room with them. She reached under her pillow where she'd stashed her gun and stepped quietly out of bed. She could not see at all in the darkness of Kestral's room, but she saw the door closing quietly. She glanced at Kestral, saw she was sound asleep, and quickly left the room.
In the long hallway outside Kestral's room was a figure walking quickly and quietly down the hall. Selene followed, her gun at the ready. The figure, who she could now see was a man with black hair that reached past his shoulders, slowed to look around and get his bearings, and Selene took the opportunity to catch up and press her gun against the back of his head.
"Turn around slowly," she commanded. His scent made her wary. He smelled of lycan, but somehow also of vampire, and his scent reminded her of Michael. But this man was not Michael.
He turned, as she had commanded, and when she saw his face, she gasped and lowered her gun.
Michael followed Raze and the two other lycans down the street to a black Phaeton. They all climbed in, Raze driving and Michael in the passenger seat, and the other two, whom Michael didn't know, sitting in the back. He wanted to ask where they were going, but was secretly afraid of Raze.
Raze was obviously much older than him, and he had been Lucian's second-in- command. By all rights, Raze should have been the new alpha. Michael was made more than a little uncomfortable by the huge black lycan.
He remembered that he had Lucian's memories, and began searching through them, trying to find some clue as to where they were going. He saw that the lycans owned a huge manor, bigger even than the vampire manor, which had been unoccupied since the lycans were enslaved, and Michael guessed that was where they were going. He also saw that Raze was older than Lucian by a century or two.
It amazed Michael that this old and powerful lycan had followed Lucian so loyally for so long and that he now wanted Michael to lead the lycans. He looked at Raze sidelong and could tell that the lycan wanted to get to the manor as soon as possible. Something was up.
"What are you doing here?" Selene hissed, grabbing his arm and pulling him down the hall towards Kestral's room.
"Looking for you," Lucian replied, walking fast to keep up with her.
"Why?" Selene demanded in a whisper, not wanting to wake the other renegades.
"Where's Michael?" he said, ignoring her question.
"With Raze, if everything went right," she told him, opening the door to Kestral's room. "You never answered my question. Why were you looking for me?"
"What happened after Viktor died?"
"Michael and I went back to his apartment and when he was asleep, I left. I ran into Raze and asked him to go get Michael and make sure he didn't come after me. Why were you looking for me?"
"To make sure you understand what needs to be done. These renegades are on to something. Xavier in particular. He knows the Elders well; he knows how they will react. Make sure you follow his orders."
"What is he—" But she was cut off as Lucian whirled with unnatural speed and was gone through the still-open window.
Selene swore softly to herself and lay back down in bed and attempted to fall back asleep.
Two hours later, she still hadn't managed it. Thoughts of Michael kept drifting into her tired mind, keeping her awake. The most persistent of these thoughts was the memory of biting him. The memory of her teeth plunging into his skin, the hot, metallic, sweet taste of his blood filing her mouth and running down her throat to warm her insides. Michael's blood had tasted slightly of lycan, but more of human. He'd been human longer than lycan when she'd bitten him, and the taste of lycan had not yet taken over his human blood. The taste of human blood was one she had never before tasted, as the drinking of human blood had been outlawed for centuries when she had been turned. Older vampires had told her what it was like to drink the blood of a human; how the taste was one you could never forget, and would always crave.
She had always thought them crazy. She had never found the taste of blood to be particularly appealing, cow and pig blood tasted of liquid metal, and she only drank when she had to.
But now, having tasted Michael's blood, she understood. She understood how some vampires turned humans as often as they could, just to taste their blood.
Michael lay in the huge bed, acutely aware of the empty space beside him. Selene should have filled that space. He stared at the ceiling, his eyes moving slowly over the entire length of it. The room Raze had told him was traditionally the alpha's was huge. The king bed in which he lay did not even begin to intrude upon the space of the room.
He wondered what René would have thought of this room. She had loved old buildings, like this manor, and the huge, decorated rooms within. He wondered what she would think of him being a lycan-vampire hybrid, and the king of lycans. And about Selene.
Selene. She was so different from René. He'd always thought that if he was going to fall in love again, it would be with someone like René, not a headstrong vampire warrior.
He pictured René in his mind; he could still remember her perfectly, even after three years of no contact whatsoever. He'd fallen in love with her so easily, but it had taken Selene to bring him fully out of the rut he'd been in since René had left him. The two were truly so different, it surprised him. René with her long, soft brown hair that he had loved to run his hands through, and her warm brown eyes. René was delicate, fine-boned, always needing to be comforted and cuddled. She had been a wonderful cook, too.
Selene, though, Selene was so different. She was powerful and strong. She could have men walk in and out of her life—or walk in and out of their lives, it would seem—without batting an eye. But for someone so independent, she was surprisingly passionate. Their one night together had been...incredible.
He wondered where she was now, what she was doing. Had she made it to shelter before daybreak?
He hoped so.
"Bite him," Lucian choked out.
Selene stared at him for a moment, then understood. A bite from her would turn him into a hybrid, and he would be able to defeat Viktor. She turned back to Michael, who was still writhing in pain as the liquid nitrate crept through his bloodstream. She let the change take her, and plunged her elongated fangs into Michael's neck, drinking his blood. The sweet, intoxicating liquid flowed into her mouth and down her throat. She had never tasted blood like this before; always before it had just been nourishment, but in a form that disgusted the little human left in her.
This was something else. This was intoxicating in a way no alcohol could ever be. She drank and drank, unable to stop herself. Beneath her teeth, Michael grew still, blood draining from his body. And then he was dead, and she was sobbing, because the sweet liquid was being denied her.
Selene woke, sobbing as she had been in the dream. But for a different reason entirely. In the dream she had mourned the loss of the sweet intoxicating blood, but awake, she cried because she had killed Michael.
When Michael woke, he still felt a lingering terror from his dream. He tried again to remember what he had dreamed, but, once again, he failed to come up with it.
He got out of bed, and looked out the window. It was around noon, and for once, it was sunny. As the rays struck his skin, a little shiver passed over him, and he knew it was the vampire in him reacting, but he brushed this aside. He looked out at the grounds of the lycan manor, and could easily picture René outside tending a garden, wearing a big floppy hat.
He tried to push the picture of his wife from his mind, but it would not leave. He wondered why she had been on his mind so much lately. He hadn't seen her in three years, not since he'd woken up one morning and she had not been there. All of her shoes were gone, as were the majority of her clothes and most of her toiletries. She had left him, run off with the man she'd been having an affair with, and he had not seen her from that day to this.
They had married young, just out of college, and their first few years together had been wonderful. René had been a wonderful wife in every aspect, and he'd thought himself the luckiest man alive, as did almost every new husband. But after only three years, what René had called "honeymoon hangover" had worn off. His hours at the hospital become incredibly crazy, and René had begun having an affair with a man at her office.
And then one morning, he'd woken up and she was gone. Just like Selene.
Marcus could hear footsteps echoing down the hall, coming towards him. He sat on his throne, pondering the state of the Elders' crypt as he waited for them to arrive.
A man, a lycan to judge by his smell, lay on the floor, a stream of blood flowing from the gaping hole in his face to the elaborate design that covered Marcus's tomb. It was that man's blood that had awakened Marcus, and his memories that now surged incoherently through his mind.
Singe had been the man's name, Marcus could discern, and Viktor had killed him.
Viktor. How he hated Viktor. He was glad that the leapfrogging prevented the two of them from ever coming in contact with each other.
The footsteps drew closer.
Erika walked among the group of vampires going to awaken Marcus. She didn't know most of them; they were all much older than she was. Kahn, who was Selene's age, and not much older than herself, was also among the little group.
Erika glanced sidelong at Kahn. He seemed to be holding up fairly well. The scars that covered his face and neck were beginning to fade, though they were still gruesome to look at. He had been badly mauled by a lycan the previous night. When he had returned, still wounded, but able to move, he had brought news of Kraven and Selene turning against them. He had been close friends with Selene, and seemed badly shaken by his news.
When Erika had visited him in private, he had told her all he knew of what had happened in the sewers. Afterwards, she had used the remaining hours of the night to seek out the renegade vampires that she knew were out there. She had found them quickly, easily navigating the streets of London from the dry safety of a taxi. Xavier, who seemed to already know who she was, had assigned her the task of spying on the vampires.
The vampire who was to awaken Marcus, a tall blond woman with a figure and commanding presence that reminded Erika of the legends of Amazons, who was called Endainme En'Dae, opened the doors to the Elders' crypt, and gasped at what she saw.
Erika peered over the shoulders of those in front of her, and her eyes widened as she saw what had made the unshakable Endainme En'Dae gasp in shock.
Disclaimer: Still don't own anything. I write for pleasure, not profit.
Chapter 2: Settling In
Kestral, the red-haired, green-eyed Scots woman who had been at the night's meeting, had offered to share her room with Selene until Xavier decided on a job for her and gave her a room in the manor.
Kestral's room was surprisingly elegant. Two twin beds were pushed against the opposite walls, each covered in thick green comforters and gold throw pillows. The walls were a beautiful shade of cream that seemed to increase the space of the room. The furniture was all made of dark cherry wood.
Kestral sat on one bed, while Selene looked around.
"Nice," she said, gazing at the spying equipment on the desk. Kestral wondered if she was talking about the room or the computers. She leaned back on her hands and waited for the question she knew was coming.
Selene did not disappoint. She turned to Kestral and asked, "Why are you renegade?"
Without missing a beat, Kestral returned with, "Why did you kill Viktor?"
Selene didn't answer, only turned to the other bed and began piling the throw pillows neatly on the floor. Kestral smiled to herself, pleased she had deflected the question so easily. She crawled under the sheets of her bed, and flipped the hidden switch that turned off the lights.
"'Night," she said, and began laughing, because, of course, it was day. Selene allowed herself a smile before drifting off to sleep.
Michael dressed quickly, hoping to catch Selene's scent outside before it got too faint. Once outside, he looked around, and, seeing no one, let his fangs elongate and his eyes blacken, but maintained his human body. He sniffed the air, testing it, trying to discern which way Selene had gone. But instead of the distinct, vampire scent of Selene, he smelt the dark musk of lycan. A growl escaped his throat, and three lycans stepped out of the shadows. All three were in their human form, but the change was close upon them. It would not take much for them to release their tense hold on a human appearance and become bestial.
"Michael," said Raze's deep voice, penetrating the peaceful darkness of the early morning. Michael forced himself into human form so he could speak more easily.
"I know what you want, Raze," he said. "But can't it wait at least until morning? I have to find Selene." Raze looked at Michael's desperate expression and was reminded forcibly of Lucian immediately after Sonja's death. Using the tactic that had worked best on Lucian, reasonability, Raze said, "Lucian is dead Michael. Without a leader, the vampires will wipe us out."
Michael, in his desperation to find Selene, responded, "Then you lead them. I have to find Selene."
Raze took several steps forward, until he was almost nose-to-nose with Michael. They were so close, Michael could see the barely visible scars on Raze's face from his fight with Soren in the den.
"You would sacrifice our entire species for the sake of one vampire," Raze said quietly, his dark voice full of contempt.
Michael brought his hand up and closed it around Raze's throat at the insult to Selene.
"You may be quick, hybrid, but I am older, stronger," Raze told him. "Choose to fight me, and I will win." Michael slowly released Raze's throat and stepped back.
"Alright," he said.
Kestral walked down the hall, following the screams she heard. Her footsteps were slow, but sure. In one hand, she held her father's sword. She reached her baby sister's room, and a gruesome sight greeted her. The walls were splattered with the blood of her parents, whose bodies now lay, dead and bloodless, on the floor. A tall man now stood over the baby's crib, holding the screaming nanny still with one powerful arm. Blood from cuts on her face and her arms stained her nightgown a ruby color. Her neck was clean on the right side, except for two small punctures which oozed blood. Kestral lifted the sword and walked purposefully into the room. The tall man turned and easily plucked the sword from her hand and knocked her to the ground, without once loosening his grip on the nanny. He turned back to the screeching woman in his arms and plunged his teeth into her neck and drank from her body until she stopped screaming and turned white and bloodless. Kestral stayed frozen where she'd fallen, watching in horror as the man turned to her. He pulled her up from the floor and sank his elongated canines into the creamy skin of her neck.
But even at sixteen, Kestral was strong, and she fought. The tall man, surprised, released her. She tore away, grabbing the sword from the floor as she ran from the room. She fled down the hall to her own room, turning the key in the lock and began piling as much furniture as she could against the door. Her heart beat hard in her chest as she felt the wound on her neck. Stories of ancient and evil creatures filled her mind and it fixed upon the story of the vampyre. The creature whose footsteps now came down the hall towards her room was a vampyre, she knew. And when it bit her, it had turned her into one of its kind. In a day or two, her heart would cease to beat, her lungs to fill with air, and her skin would burn at the touch of sunlight. She would grow cold, like ice, and her skin would never warm again. At these thoughts, tears filled her eyes, and she collapsed on the floor, weeping, as the door began to quiver and shake as the creature outside her door attempted to enter.
Kestral woke, shaking and crying silently. That night had been terrible for her. Though it had been well over six hundred years ago, and she had made peace with what she was, each time she dreamed, the horror and shame of the night she'd been turned came back in full force. She curled on her side, ignoring the tears that still fell, and tried to fall back asleep.
Selene was not asleep long before she woke again, wide awake. There was someone in the room with them. She reached under her pillow where she'd stashed her gun and stepped quietly out of bed. She could not see at all in the darkness of Kestral's room, but she saw the door closing quietly. She glanced at Kestral, saw she was sound asleep, and quickly left the room.
In the long hallway outside Kestral's room was a figure walking quickly and quietly down the hall. Selene followed, her gun at the ready. The figure, who she could now see was a man with black hair that reached past his shoulders, slowed to look around and get his bearings, and Selene took the opportunity to catch up and press her gun against the back of his head.
"Turn around slowly," she commanded. His scent made her wary. He smelled of lycan, but somehow also of vampire, and his scent reminded her of Michael. But this man was not Michael.
He turned, as she had commanded, and when she saw his face, she gasped and lowered her gun.
Michael followed Raze and the two other lycans down the street to a black Phaeton. They all climbed in, Raze driving and Michael in the passenger seat, and the other two, whom Michael didn't know, sitting in the back. He wanted to ask where they were going, but was secretly afraid of Raze.
Raze was obviously much older than him, and he had been Lucian's second-in- command. By all rights, Raze should have been the new alpha. Michael was made more than a little uncomfortable by the huge black lycan.
He remembered that he had Lucian's memories, and began searching through them, trying to find some clue as to where they were going. He saw that the lycans owned a huge manor, bigger even than the vampire manor, which had been unoccupied since the lycans were enslaved, and Michael guessed that was where they were going. He also saw that Raze was older than Lucian by a century or two.
It amazed Michael that this old and powerful lycan had followed Lucian so loyally for so long and that he now wanted Michael to lead the lycans. He looked at Raze sidelong and could tell that the lycan wanted to get to the manor as soon as possible. Something was up.
"What are you doing here?" Selene hissed, grabbing his arm and pulling him down the hall towards Kestral's room.
"Looking for you," Lucian replied, walking fast to keep up with her.
"Why?" Selene demanded in a whisper, not wanting to wake the other renegades.
"Where's Michael?" he said, ignoring her question.
"With Raze, if everything went right," she told him, opening the door to Kestral's room. "You never answered my question. Why were you looking for me?"
"What happened after Viktor died?"
"Michael and I went back to his apartment and when he was asleep, I left. I ran into Raze and asked him to go get Michael and make sure he didn't come after me. Why were you looking for me?"
"To make sure you understand what needs to be done. These renegades are on to something. Xavier in particular. He knows the Elders well; he knows how they will react. Make sure you follow his orders."
"What is he—" But she was cut off as Lucian whirled with unnatural speed and was gone through the still-open window.
Selene swore softly to herself and lay back down in bed and attempted to fall back asleep.
Two hours later, she still hadn't managed it. Thoughts of Michael kept drifting into her tired mind, keeping her awake. The most persistent of these thoughts was the memory of biting him. The memory of her teeth plunging into his skin, the hot, metallic, sweet taste of his blood filing her mouth and running down her throat to warm her insides. Michael's blood had tasted slightly of lycan, but more of human. He'd been human longer than lycan when she'd bitten him, and the taste of lycan had not yet taken over his human blood. The taste of human blood was one she had never before tasted, as the drinking of human blood had been outlawed for centuries when she had been turned. Older vampires had told her what it was like to drink the blood of a human; how the taste was one you could never forget, and would always crave.
She had always thought them crazy. She had never found the taste of blood to be particularly appealing, cow and pig blood tasted of liquid metal, and she only drank when she had to.
But now, having tasted Michael's blood, she understood. She understood how some vampires turned humans as often as they could, just to taste their blood.
Michael lay in the huge bed, acutely aware of the empty space beside him. Selene should have filled that space. He stared at the ceiling, his eyes moving slowly over the entire length of it. The room Raze had told him was traditionally the alpha's was huge. The king bed in which he lay did not even begin to intrude upon the space of the room.
He wondered what René would have thought of this room. She had loved old buildings, like this manor, and the huge, decorated rooms within. He wondered what she would think of him being a lycan-vampire hybrid, and the king of lycans. And about Selene.
Selene. She was so different from René. He'd always thought that if he was going to fall in love again, it would be with someone like René, not a headstrong vampire warrior.
He pictured René in his mind; he could still remember her perfectly, even after three years of no contact whatsoever. He'd fallen in love with her so easily, but it had taken Selene to bring him fully out of the rut he'd been in since René had left him. The two were truly so different, it surprised him. René with her long, soft brown hair that he had loved to run his hands through, and her warm brown eyes. René was delicate, fine-boned, always needing to be comforted and cuddled. She had been a wonderful cook, too.
Selene, though, Selene was so different. She was powerful and strong. She could have men walk in and out of her life—or walk in and out of their lives, it would seem—without batting an eye. But for someone so independent, she was surprisingly passionate. Their one night together had been...incredible.
He wondered where she was now, what she was doing. Had she made it to shelter before daybreak?
He hoped so.
"Bite him," Lucian choked out.
Selene stared at him for a moment, then understood. A bite from her would turn him into a hybrid, and he would be able to defeat Viktor. She turned back to Michael, who was still writhing in pain as the liquid nitrate crept through his bloodstream. She let the change take her, and plunged her elongated fangs into Michael's neck, drinking his blood. The sweet, intoxicating liquid flowed into her mouth and down her throat. She had never tasted blood like this before; always before it had just been nourishment, but in a form that disgusted the little human left in her.
This was something else. This was intoxicating in a way no alcohol could ever be. She drank and drank, unable to stop herself. Beneath her teeth, Michael grew still, blood draining from his body. And then he was dead, and she was sobbing, because the sweet liquid was being denied her.
Selene woke, sobbing as she had been in the dream. But for a different reason entirely. In the dream she had mourned the loss of the sweet intoxicating blood, but awake, she cried because she had killed Michael.
When Michael woke, he still felt a lingering terror from his dream. He tried again to remember what he had dreamed, but, once again, he failed to come up with it.
He got out of bed, and looked out the window. It was around noon, and for once, it was sunny. As the rays struck his skin, a little shiver passed over him, and he knew it was the vampire in him reacting, but he brushed this aside. He looked out at the grounds of the lycan manor, and could easily picture René outside tending a garden, wearing a big floppy hat.
He tried to push the picture of his wife from his mind, but it would not leave. He wondered why she had been on his mind so much lately. He hadn't seen her in three years, not since he'd woken up one morning and she had not been there. All of her shoes were gone, as were the majority of her clothes and most of her toiletries. She had left him, run off with the man she'd been having an affair with, and he had not seen her from that day to this.
They had married young, just out of college, and their first few years together had been wonderful. René had been a wonderful wife in every aspect, and he'd thought himself the luckiest man alive, as did almost every new husband. But after only three years, what René had called "honeymoon hangover" had worn off. His hours at the hospital become incredibly crazy, and René had begun having an affair with a man at her office.
And then one morning, he'd woken up and she was gone. Just like Selene.
Marcus could hear footsteps echoing down the hall, coming towards him. He sat on his throne, pondering the state of the Elders' crypt as he waited for them to arrive.
A man, a lycan to judge by his smell, lay on the floor, a stream of blood flowing from the gaping hole in his face to the elaborate design that covered Marcus's tomb. It was that man's blood that had awakened Marcus, and his memories that now surged incoherently through his mind.
Singe had been the man's name, Marcus could discern, and Viktor had killed him.
Viktor. How he hated Viktor. He was glad that the leapfrogging prevented the two of them from ever coming in contact with each other.
The footsteps drew closer.
Erika walked among the group of vampires going to awaken Marcus. She didn't know most of them; they were all much older than she was. Kahn, who was Selene's age, and not much older than herself, was also among the little group.
Erika glanced sidelong at Kahn. He seemed to be holding up fairly well. The scars that covered his face and neck were beginning to fade, though they were still gruesome to look at. He had been badly mauled by a lycan the previous night. When he had returned, still wounded, but able to move, he had brought news of Kraven and Selene turning against them. He had been close friends with Selene, and seemed badly shaken by his news.
When Erika had visited him in private, he had told her all he knew of what had happened in the sewers. Afterwards, she had used the remaining hours of the night to seek out the renegade vampires that she knew were out there. She had found them quickly, easily navigating the streets of London from the dry safety of a taxi. Xavier, who seemed to already know who she was, had assigned her the task of spying on the vampires.
The vampire who was to awaken Marcus, a tall blond woman with a figure and commanding presence that reminded Erika of the legends of Amazons, who was called Endainme En'Dae, opened the doors to the Elders' crypt, and gasped at what she saw.
Erika peered over the shoulders of those in front of her, and her eyes widened as she saw what had made the unshakable Endainme En'Dae gasp in shock.