Author's Note: Wow, this is a long one. Seven pages! Wow. Very proud of myself, especially in the light that I spent almost all my time this week at play rehearsal. But that's over now, so hopefully I can update faster. I had to change a few things in the first two chapters, namely Selene's age, to fit with the movie. You see, my friend Moose and I planned out this whole timeline thing, starting with the war and going through to when the movie takes place. But we planned it as though the war started 600 years ago. And it didn't; 600 years ago is when Lucian was "killed". So Selene is now around five hundred, instead of two hundred. Please review!

Disclaimer: I don't own anything except original characters (Kestral) and the plot. Marcus is only what I imagine him to be. Please don't sue.



Chapter 3: A New Love

Erika stared in horror at the rotted corpse sitting on the throne on the far side of the room. She had never attended an Awakening before, nor seen an Elder immediately after. She had seen Viktor, but he had been almost normal when she had seen him.

Marcus, having only just been Awakened, was hardly a pleasant sight. Endainme En'Dae had quickly gotten over her initial shock of seeing the last remaining Elder already awake, was already on the other side of the room, connecting Marcus to a packet of blood so the regenerating process could begin.

"Milord," she was saying. "How long have you been awake?"

"Long enough to wonder what happened here," Marcus said coolly, gesturing to the bloody body of Singe. His voice was light and rebuking.

"Perhaps now is not the time to discuss this, milord," Endainme En'Dae responded, her bright green eyes flicking a glance towards the small crowd clustered in the doorway. Marcus followed her glance with his own hazel eyes, and his eyes met and held Erika's for an instant. His gaze filled her with an icy dread, though she could not have said why.

His eyes moved from hers, and scanned the rest of the crowd, then said, "Leave." They all bowed to him, and filled quickly out the door to spread the news that somehow Marcus had been Awakened on his own.



Erika walked quickly down the hall to her room in the servant's quarters. She must get a message to Xavier quickly. There had been something in Marcus's gaze that told her something was very wrong with the Elder. His scent had been so strange. Something was definitely wrong.



Marcus turned to Endainme En'Dae, and asked, "Who was she?"

"Hold still," the tall Amazon woman commanded, still connecting long tubes between the Elder and the blood packet. Marcus obeyed, out of respect for the woman he had sired so long ago.

Her history was an interesting one. She was almost as old as he was, and the Council had been debating whether to make her an Elder or not for a few centuries now. She had once been an Amazon queen, and a very powerful one at that. It had been said that Ares, god of war, had been her lover, before the old gods and the old ways had died. When Marcus had turned her, she had been in her early twenties, and she seemed to have aged only slightly in the centuries that had passed since she had become a creature of the night.

"There," Endainme En'Dae said triumphantly, finishing with the final tube. "Now, who was who?"

"That blond girl, with the brown eyes."

"Oh, you mean Erika. She's a servant girl."

"Servant girl?" Marcus asked, surprised. The girl had seemed too proud to be a servant.

"She was a lord's daughter 450 years ago. Viktor thought she was too proud, so he made her a servant. She was Selene's maidservant until Selene turned traitor. Now she serves the Death Dealers."

"I see. Now tell me what has happened since I've been asleep." Endainme En'Dae nodded, and began the long tale.



Erika sat in the window seat, staring out the window, thinking. It had been a month since Marcus's Awakening. How he had been Awakened was still a mystery, but Selene, the only renegade to have attended, not to mention performed, an Awakening, said it might have something to do with Singe. Erika had told Xavier everything she knew about the remaining Elder, and what she could remember of the throne room when they had entered it. Upon hearing the Singe's body had still been there, and there had been blood in the design covering Marcus's tomb, Selene had said that it was possible the lycan scientist's blood had seeped into the Elder's coffin, and entered his mouth to Awaken him.

But that would make Marcus a hybrid. And that was impossible. He didn't have any lycan smell about him, and he didn't act any different, though she had only lived through one century with him awake. But still, shouldn't she have noticed some sort of change in the Elder's behavior?

Erika was so caught up in her thoughts that she didn't hear the footsteps behind her. When Marcus's light voice spoke, she jumped.

"Beautiful night," he said. "The stars have not been this bright in a long time." Erika turned to face him, looking guilty. She should have been doing her work as a servant of the Death Dealers, not staring out the window like some love-sick girl.

"Yes milord," she agreed. It was a nice night, and she planned on going out to feed later, but now she was going to have to talk her way out of another encounter with Marcus. She had run into him several times in the past month, and each time he attempted to engage her in conversation, but she didn't want to involve herself with him until she had figured out what exactly was going on.

And besides, there were her remaining feelings for Kraven to consider. She had gone to the renegades half-hoping that he would be there, but he hadn't. His whereabouts were still a mystery.

"If you will excuse me, milord," Erika said, trying not to sound rude. "I have work that needs doing."

"It can wait," he told her firmly. "If anyone yells at you, then you may tell them to talk to me about it."

Damn. So she wasn't going to get out of it by pleading work to do, as she had done in the past.

"Walk with me," he commanded, and held out his arm for her. She laid her hand on it delicately. She wore simple jeans and spaghetti-strap shirt. While she generally preferred nicer clothes—she was a lord's daughter after all—there was no sense in dressing up to clean bedrooms, as she was supposed to be doing tonight.

"You serve the Death Dealers, correct?" Marcus asked conversationally.

"Yes, milord."

"Erika." Marcus stopped and turned to her. "Please do not call me that. I get quite enough of it from everyone else; I don't need it from you as well."

"As you wish, mi—" she stopped herself.

"You see," Marcus said, smiling. "It's not so hard."

"What should I call you then, if not milord?" Erika asked, almost impertinent. She had perfected being a seductress while Kraven was in the manor, and it had all become second nature.

Perhaps that's not a good thing, she thought. His eyes strayed a little from her face before he spoke.

"My name is Marcus," he told her, with a hint of humor in his voice. "You may call me that."

"As you wish... Marcus."



Erika was surprised when, three days after her midnight talk with Marcus, the head serving woman had told her that Marcus had requested her service in preparing for the banquet with the Council members that night.

She put down the rag she was using to dust Selene's old room and went upstairs to the rooms the Elder occupied, and knocked on the door.

"Come in," Marcus's voice called through the door.

Erika opened the door, and stepped inside, still unsure of what exactly she was doing here.

"Mae told me you wanted my help preparing for the banquet tonight," she said.

"Yes," he told her. "Please, come in." She was already in, but she shut the door behind her and stepped further into the room, still hovering in the entrance. Marcus turned back to the paper he was studying and Erika had the chance to properly look at him.

He was tall, perhaps six feet, and had golden hair and hazel eyes. His skin, though it had not seen the sun for centuries, was a golden color, and when the light caught in his hair and shone on his skin, he seemed almost a god.

In that instant, Erika felt all her feelings for Kraven vanish as if they had never been.

Marcus turned back to her, and smiled.

"I haven't got any idea what I should wear tonight," he told her. "It is a rather important banquet, and I have noticed that you have impeccable taste."

Erika smiled; this was something she was good at. She went to Marcus's closet, and began searching through the clothes there. She found surprisingly few dress clothes. Almost everything he had would be suitable for everyday wear, but she could see nothing dressy.

Marcus watched Erika as she dug through his closet. He wondered what she would choose. There was a relatively small selection; he was not fond of dressing up. Her hair was down, pulled back from her face by two blue butterfly clips, and a small frown of concentration had settled between her arching brows. Marcus admired her perfect features as he watched her look at his clothes, considering one shirt, and then putting it back in favor of another. Then she reached the back of his closet, and he smiled as she gasped in surprise.

"Marcus, what is this?" Erika asked, pulling a beautiful, strapless dress from the closet.

"A dress," Marcus said with a perfectly straight face.

"But what is it doing in your closet?" Erika persisted, not put off by his teasing manner.

"I thought you might like to wear it." He was serious now. "I should like you to accompany me tonight. If you want to that is," he added hastily. Erika gaped at him, then looked down at the dress.

"I don't know what to say," she managed. "I... Yes. I will."



Erika looked at herself in the mirror, admiring the dress. Marcus came up behind her and put his hands on her bare shoulders.

"You look beautiful," he told her. "You'll be the most beautiful girl there."

"Of course," Erika replied teasingly. "Lord Marcus deserves only the best." She smiled at him in the mirror, and he smiled back, but there was a question in his eyes. She turned to face him, his eyes searching her face for an answer. She didn't speak, only leaned forward, brushing her lips against his with a touch as light as a butterfly's.

His arms encircled her waist, pulling her closer. Her arms went around his neck, fingers twining in his sun-gold hair.

The kiss deepened; Marcus swept his tongue along her lips and she parted them to let him in. They pressed hard together, looking as though they were drinking each other into their souls. Marcus's hands moved from her waist and fumbled with her dress, trying to get it off her. Erika realized what would happen in she allowed this to continue now.

"Marcus, we're going to be late to the party." She pulled back a little from his embrace.

"Who gives a damn?" he said, moving towards her.

"But how would it look? We can continue this later, after the party, I promise." Marcus sighed, disappointed, but he released her. She turned back to the mirror to fix her disheveled hair.

When she was ready, they left Marcus's room, and descended the stairs to the banquet hall where the party would take place.

"Who's going to be there?" Erika asked as they walked. "Other than the Council, I mean."

"Probably the majority of vampires in England, if not Europe," Marcus replied sourly.

"Not fond of them, I take it?"

"Not really, no. Most of them are fops concerned only with getting more power, so they can move into higher social circles. Even the Council is like that. Viktor at least knew when to take action, even if the action was the wrong one."

"Don't like Viktor either?"

"He was too severe, too wrapped up in his hatred of the lycans. Enough to kill..." Marcus trailed off, remembering that not all the vampires knew about Sonja.

"Kill who?" Erika asked, curious. Marcus stopped walking and turned to her.

"Not everything an Elder says is true, Erika. Viktor spread lies about...how the war started, and Amelia and I had to go along with it, or we'd all look the fool. I'll tell you everything later. But now we're about to be late, thanks to your insistence on making out."

"Excuse me, milord, but I seem to recall it differently. I remember you wanting to make out, and me wanting to get to the party."

"How many times must I ask you not to call me that?" Marcus said, the heat in his voice making her shiver agreeably. He was about to kiss her, when a high female voice from a few stairs below said, "Lord Marcus, is that you?" Marcus pulled reluctantly away from Erika, and looked down to see a middle- aged looking vampire female with far too much makeup on, and badly bleached hair. Her dress, a tasteless thing of bright fuchsia, accompanied by a lime green handbag, hung limply from her bony shoulders and didn't cover her saggy arms.

"My dear Lord Marcus," she said, her voice like nails on a chalkboard. "How are you?" She swaggered up to him in a way that told Erika that the woman clearly thought she was very attractive.

"It's absolutely wonderful to see you," the woman continued. "Why, I haven't seen you in two hundred years!"

Duh, Erika thought. He's been asleep, dummy.

"Lady Estella," Marcus said politely. "How nice to see you. You haven't aged a day since I last saw you."

"Why, thank Marcus," Estella said, primping her bleached hair with one hand. "Oh, there's Alexander! If you'll excuse me Marcus, I really must go talk to him." Estella left, and walked across the room towards a young vampire in a black suit. When he saw her coming, he turned around quickly and tried to get away, but she caught hold of his arm and dragged him off, talking in his ear all the way.

"Poor Alex," Marcus muttered sympathetically.

"Who was that woman?" Erika asked.

"Estella. Some idiot got drunk and turned her just after her fiftieth birthday. She's been caught up in the everybody-loves-me-because-it's-my- birthday mood for almost six centuries. Thankfully, she lives in Wales, so we only see her at the big parties, like this one." He shuddered involuntarily. "Come on, let's get something to eat, I'm starved."

Erika threaded her arm through Marcus's and they headed back over to a table covered in human food and drink, as well as warm blood. They accepted glasses of the think ruby liquid from Mae, standing behind the table, and Marcus took her around through the room, introducing her to Council members and other important people as they sipped their blood.

Erika listened with half an ear as Marcus offered condolences to Amelia's sister, Anna, when she caught a familiar scent. She stiffened as it filled her nostrils for a second and vanished as quickly as it had come. Marcus felt her stiffen beside him and quickly and politely disengaged them from Anna, and pulled her into a corner so they could talk in private.

"What is it?" Marcus asked in a low voice. "What's wrong?"

"Kraven," Erika whispered back. "He was here."

"Are you sure?" he asked, sniffing the air and smelling nothing.

"Positive."



Selene was lost in her dream. She dreamt that she had never left Michael, and that he was kissing her. His warm mouth moved from her icy one to trace her jaw line with his lips, then moving down to her neck. As his fangs grazed her jugular, her own fangs elongated and she lowered her head to his neck, plunging her fangs into his skin. She drank greedily of the rich red liquid pouring from the wound until Michael collapsed beneath her teeth, dead and bloodless.

She woke with a little cry and found tears on her face. She was clutching something hung about her neck. When she looked, she saw it was Lucian's—Sonja's—pendant, which she had taken the night in the tunnels. She lay down again and slowly let go of the necklace. But it was a long time before sleep came again.



It was almost morning. All during the party, Marcus and Erika had looked, as inconspicuously as possible, for Kraven, but he seemed to have disappeared. At last, the party and the banquet with the Council members, was over, and Erika and Marcus went back upstairs to Marcus's room. Once inside, Marcus asked, "Are you sure Kraven was there?"

"I'm positive Marcus," Erika insisted. "I smelled him. I don't know why you didn't; you were right next to me." She paused, then said, almost hesitiantly, "Your senses ought to be better than mine anyway." Marcus stiffened. "Marcus, you're a hybrid, aren't you?"

Marcus couldn't meet her eyes as he asked, "Does it bother you?"

Erika closed the distance between them and put her arms around his waist. "Not in the slightest." Marcus put his own arms around her.

"I had hoped it wouldn't," he whispered before leaning down to kiss her deeply. And this time, when his hands moved to unfasten her dress, she let him.



Marcus was awakened that evening by Erika slipping out of bed and looking for her clothes.

"Where are you going?" Marcus groaned, getting out of bed.

"I have work to do."

"No, you don't."

"Why wouldn't I? Because you and I slept together? That's hardly a reason that will satisfy Mae."

"No, because I intend on making you my consort, and my consort should not have to do a servant's work."

Erika gaped at him, and he added quickly, "If that's alright with you, of course. It is okay, isn't it?" Erika couldn't speak, only ran across the room to kiss him in her excitement.

"I'll take that as a yes."



A few weeks later, Erika decided to discuss something with Marcus that she had been sitting on for a few days now. Xavier had told her that, as long as she was in a position of power, they may as well use it to their advantage. She was to talk about Selene and try to get Marcus to agree to let her come back. Selene, already having experience in the field of spying and secrecy, would prove invaluable to the renegades, Xavier knew, and he wanted to get her in as soon as possible. When Marcus returned from his meeting, Erika would talk to him, even though she didn't want to, because it meant more secrets and more lies that she would have to keep from her hybrid lover, whom she was becoming more and more in loved with at each passing moment.



"Selene, Xavier wants to talk to you," Kestral said, sticking her head into Selene's room, where she was experimenting with a photo enhancer.

"Just a minute," Selene said, not looking up from her computer screen as she made the finishing touches on a picture Kestral had taken earlier that week. "Okay, all done." She stood up and followed the older vampire out of the room.

Kestral lead Selene downstairs to Xavier's office. Selene went inside and Kestral waited outside.

"Kestral said you wanted to see me?"

"Yes," Xavier said, looking up from his desk, where he was examining a bunch of papers spread out all over the dark mahogany desk. "I just got word from Erika. Marcus wants you at the manor first thing tomorrow night. You are to go straight to him, and explain why you killed Viktor. If he finds your explanation satisfactory, then you will be pardoned, and allowed to live in the manor. If not, you will probably be sentenced to death, so have an escape plan in mind. Now go pack." Selene nodded, and left, her face expressionless, but inside she was thrilled. She had missed the manor where she had lived for nearly five hundred years, and she was glad to be going back.

Kestral was waiting just outside the door. "Well?" she demanded.

Selene grinned. "Erika did it. She convinced Marcus to let me come back. I just have to explain why I killed Viktor."

"What will you tell him?" Kestral asked.

Selene was silent for a long time, thinking. At last she said, "The truth."



"He's in here," Erika said, gesturing to the door behind which Marcus waited to judge Selene.

"Thank you Erika," Selene said. She put her hand on the doorknob, took a deep breath to gather her thoughts, and went inside.

Marcus stood staring out the window, watching the half moon rise.

"Milord? You wanted to see me as soon as I got here." Selene's voice was tentative. If it had been anyone else, it could have been called nervous.

"Yes," Marcus said, his gaze not shifting from the sky. "Now tell me why you did what you did." His voice was flat, cold, free of all emotion.

"He lied to me. About my family, about the war, about Sonja." Selene was watching Marcus carefully, and she saw him wince at the vampire princess's name. "He lied to me about my whole existence. And not just to me. To everyone. All the vampires, in all the covens. He lied to us all. And he wasn't the least bit sorry about it." She meant him killing Sonja, and Marcus knew it. "The war had to end, and the only way it would, was for him to die. So I killed him." She was silent, waiting for what Marcus would say. He turned from the window and looked into her eyes. She looked steadily back, not a trace of fear in her gaze as she looked at the vampire who could end her life with a single command.

"And the hybrid? What of him?"

"What about him? I have not seen him since that night, nor had any contact with him."

Marcus frowned. She was telling the truth, he knew. His newly heightened sense could smell when someone was lying, and she was not. But there was something odd going on. If only he knew what.

"Very well," he said, still frowning. "Erika will help you get settled in again."

"Yes milord." Selene bowed and left the room. Erika had not left her post outside the door.

"Well?" she demanded, in the same way Kestral had the previous night.

"You are to help me get settled in," Selene told her.

"So he pardoned you?" Erika said gleefully.

"Not in so many words, but yes, I do believe he did. But I don't understand how you can love him; he's so cold."

"He's never like that with me. But that's great that he pardoned you, Selene!"

"I know. Now we can get Xavier some new weapons. Have you seen what the guns using? They might as well use swords for all the good it does!" Selene shook her head sadly. "It's almost pathetic really."

"Is there ever a time when you don't think about fighting," Erika asked, exasperated.

"Nope."



Selene woke feeling queasy. She'd been in the manor for a week now, and each night when she woke, she had to run to the bathroom to vomit. She sat up slowly, wary, ready to bolt to the bathroom should nausea overtake her other senses. She cautiously swung her feet out of bed, and stood. As she swayed on her feet, the smell of roses drifted into her room from the open window. As she scent entered her nostrils, the nausea hit.

By the time she had emerged from the bathroom, she had decided that it was time to see the manor's doctor about this. Something weird was going on with her body, and she needed to find out what it was.



The doctor, a short vampire with a balding gray head, was called Jarvis. He examined her thoroughly, then said, "Well, you're in perfect health, considering."

Selene's stomach clenched. "Considering what?"



Selene was in her car, driving. She didn't have a destination in mind, but she had to get away from the manor. From everything. Her mind was in turmoil. This could not be happening. Not now, not to her. She didn't want to believe Jarvis's diagnosis, but it explained a lot. Her missed cycles, the sickness that controlled her evenings. But it couldn't be true. She hadn't done anything that would cause—but then she remembered. She had. She fumbled for her cell phone in the glove compartment. She found it and quickly dialed Kestral's number with fumbling fingers.

"Hello?" Kestral's voice answered.

"Kestral," Selene said desperately.

"Selene," Kestral said in surprise. "What's the matter?"

"Kestral, I'm..." She almost couldn't say it. "I'm pregnant."