A/N: I want to start off this A/N by thanking all my wonderful reviewers, especially Moose (vampirehuntr00) and iridescent eyes. Also to Chronicles Bailey, because your review made my day. And made me decided that I have kept the cliffy going long enough, and it is time to post the next chapter. I bet you're just dying to find out if Michael and René get back together, so I'll shut up now and let you read.
Disclaimer: I own nothing, except my original characters, please don't sue!
Chapter 5: Not Over Yet
"Kraven, I'm going to kick your ass!" Michael shouted at the vampire, just before transforming. He had met the traitorous vampire on his way back to Farkas Kikötõ and instantly recognized him as the bastard who shot him in the sewers before his fight with Viktor.
Kraven took the opportunity that Michael's transformation presented to pull out his gun and fire a round into the hybrid's chest. The silver stung, but Michael ignored the sharp pain and his transformation continued.
Once fully in hybrid form, he roared at Kraven. What little blood was left in the pale undead's face left it, and he turned and ran, thrusting his gun into the inside of his jacket.
Oh no you don't, Michael thought. You're not getting away that easy! Using his newly developed hybrid speed, Michael raced after Kraven, catching up quickly. Kraven stopped as he found his path impeded by a large, blue hybrid and started at Michael, his face paler than normal and his eyes wide with terror.
"How in the hell...?" he began to say, but before he could complete the question, Michael slammed his clawed fist into Kraven's chin.
"Fuck," Kraven swore as the razor sharp claws dug four deep lines into his face. "If this scars, I'll kill you! Without my perfect face, how will I get Selene to fall in love with me?"
It was the wrong thing to say.
Half an hour later, Michael stalked back to his car, wiping Kraven's blood of his clothes. Despite the heavy beating Michael had given him, Kraven was still alive. Though Michael had eaten someone only two weeks ago, he still held onto his humanity, which wouldn't let him kill Kraven. But he had battered the vampire bloody; Kraven wouldn't be bedding anyone anytime soon. Particularly not Selene.
When he arrived at Farkas Kikötõ, there was another letter from René waiting for him. Nothing she had to say improved his mood.
Each night, Michael dreamed the dream that he could never remember, but terrified him to his core, and each morning, he tired in vain to recall.
But this night was different. Tonight, as he tossed and turned in his sleep, he dreamed a dream that he longed to be real, and yet frightened him to his very core. And when he woke, he would remember.
Michael opened the door to his rooms and smiled when he saw Selene was awake. She was sitting at her desk comparing something on her laptop screen to a pad of paper beside her. Her hair was tousled and she appeared to have just woken up.
"Morning sweetheart," he said, even though it was seven in the evening. He kissed her cheek as he sat down beside her.
"Morning," she replied absently. Michael looked at her laptop to see what was consuming so much of her attention, and saw that it was a solitaire game. On the notepad, she had drawn out the game and was trying to figure out her next move.
"Move the seven onto the eight," he told her, even though his sleeping self was shouting at his dreaming self, This is ridiculous! Selene doesn't play solitaire! She was... but there she was, in his dream, moving the seven of hearts onto the eight of spades. Somehow, this caused a smiley face to pop up and say, "You've won!" over and over again.
"That's why I love you," Selene said silkily, sliding her arms around his neck.
"Because I win solitaire games?" Dream Michael asked while Sleeping Michael thought, This is beyond ridiculous.
"Because you're so smart," she corrected, kissing him, and the passion between them rose quickly, tongues gliding in and out of the kiss. Michael slipped his arms around her waist and she moaned as he sucked on her neck. Suddenly, there was a sharp pain on the side of his neck, and he realized that it was Selene's teeth puncturing his skin. He let her drink, not even struggling against her as she slowly drank every last drop of his blood. At that point, Sleeping Michael detached himself from Dream Michael and watched in horror as the love of his life drank his life from him.
When Michael woke, the terror of the dream had not lessened, though when his waking mind remembered, it was not with the mindless terror that his subconscious did. In fact, it seemed more ridiculous than anything else. Especially the solitaire game. With a sigh, he lay back down and went to sleep.
Michael woke when Raze hammered loudly on his door. Groaning, he rolled over and buried his face in the pillow, muttering, "Five more minutes." The dream had not returned since that night he had remembered it for the first time, and he had treasured the last ten dreamless nights.
"Michael, get up!" Raze said through the door. "There's a phone call for you."
A phone call? Michael sat up, confused. He hadn't known that Farkas Kikötõ had a phone. Everyone used their cell phones if they need to make a phone call, which was very rare.
He got up, adjusting his pants and not bothering to put on a shirt before he opened the door. Raze led him down a series of hallways until he was thoroughly lost. At the end of one hallway was a perfectly normal-looking corded telephone.
Well, I'll be damned, Michael thought.
"Hello?" he said, picking it up.
"Michael?" a familiar voice on the other end of the line asked.
"René?" he exclaimed. "How the fuck did you get this number? I don't even have this number!" I didn't even know we had a phone, he added to himself, but didn't feel the need to share that thought with René.
"Would you like it?" René asked.
"Why are you calling me, René?" Michael asked in a resigned voice.
"I want you back, Michael."
"Did Kraven put you up to this?" he asked suspiciously.
"Who?"
"Never mind. Why are you calling me?"
"I told you, I want you back."
"Surely René, you can't think I'm still in love with you! Not even you can be that dense! It's been three years since you left me without so much as a goodbye, much less an explanation! I've moved on, René, so should you."
"But Michael, I—"
"No buts, René! I don't want you back. Not now, not ever! You may as well get used to it!" He hung up. He was furious, both with René and with himself. Why did she have to call now? Now, when he was not only in love with another woman, but not even human anymore.
Why me? he thought to himself. Why is it always me?
He looked around for Raze, but the large black lycan was gone.
Of course.
Michael hoped he would be able to find his way back to his room through the twisting passages of Farkas Kikötõ by himself.
"Dammit, why won't she leave me alone!" Michael yelled as he saw yet another letter from René sitting on his desk. In the week since the phone call, Michael had received a letter from his wife nearly everyday. Evidently, she had not taken his not-so-subtle hint over the phone, though her letters had gotten much more desperate in the last weeks.
Raze didn't even glance up from the gun he was cleaning.
"I'm going for a drive," Michael snapped, grabbing his keys. Raze nodded absently, still not looking up, as Michael stormed from the room. He had had a long day trying to find out what the vampires were up to, and the letter from René had been the final straw.
He jammed the keys into the ignition and started the car. He lowered the roof of his Viper to let the wind blast full force onto his face, heedless of the storm that had been brewing all day. He drove quickly, not paying attention to where he was going. He didn't know how long he'd been driving, only that night had fallen, when he realized that he was outside the gates to Ordoghaz.
Shit, he thought, putting the car in reverse and turning around to be sure he didn't hit anything. And when he turned, he saw a figure standing behind the car. Directly above the figure was the cloud-covered gibbous moon. It was going to rain soon. He put the top back up and got out of the car to face the figure, taking off his shirt in case he had to fight.
"Michael," the figure said as the rain began to fall. A lightning strike lit the scene, and Michael could see that the figure was around six feet tall, with light hair and eyes. His skin had a golden tan, though Michael's nose told him that the man was a vampire. The vampire stepped forward as he continued to talk. "It's nice to meet you at last. Our intelligence service has been absolutely abuzz with news of you." As the vampire drew nearer, Michael amended his early classification. This man was not just a vampire. He was a hybrid...and an Elder.
Marcus.
"What do you want Marcus?" Michael asked. He could see the Elder's eyes were turning black as the change began to take over. He allowed his own body to begin the shift into its other form.
"The extermination of your species," Marcus said with a growl just before the final part of the transformation occurred and speech became impossible. Michael was only a step behind, his body already blue and his skeleton reforming itself.
Marcus struck first, his body full of a grace and power Michael had never seen before. He roared in pain as the other hybrid's claws caught him across the chest. He lashed out with his own claws, but only swiped at the air as the older hybrid jumped back. He swung again, this time catching Marcus across the cheek with the tip of one claw. The fight had begun.
Marcus was harder to fight than Viktor. He was older than Michael, and though he was less experienced with his hybrid form, he was still a much better fighter. Michael no longer had the advantage. Marcus was also not blinded by hate and rage, as Viktor had been. He fought, not for his life, but for pleasure. For he was enjoying the fight immensely, as Michael could see. The thought horrified him, and that caused him to hesitate long enough for Marcus to gain the upper hand.
Michael lay on the ground, bleeding from several cuts on his chest, back, and face. Marcus raised his hand to deliver the killing blow when a voice came floating across the driveway from the entrance of Ordoghaz.
"Marcus? Marcus, are you out here?" Footsteps crunched on the gravel as the speaker came towards them. Then a gasp as whoever-it-was saw the condition of both Marcus and Michael.
"Oh my God," the woman said.
"Erika, it's not how it looks," Marcus said, back in human form.
"Get inside and clean yourself up," she ordered, as if she had some power over him. But she evidently did, for a few moments later Michael could hear the Elder's footsteps on the gravel. He tried to pick himself up off the ground, but found that he couldn't; it was too painful. The woman, the vampire, he corrected himself, knelt beside him. His eyes were closed from the pain, but she spoke.
"Michael, Michael, wake up." His eyes opened, and he saw the same levitating blonde woman who had wanted to turn him the one night he spent in Ordoghaz. "I'm going to get Selene; stay right here." As if he could go anywhere, even if he wanted to. But the mention of Selene rooted him to the ground as securely as actual roots.
Selene is going to kill me, Erika thought as she rushed through the hallways of Ordoghaz to the Death Dealer's rooms. She knocked hastily and entered without waiting for an answer. Inside, Selene was starring blankly at her laptop, lost in a solitaire game that she was clearly loosing. She looked up as Erika burst into the room.
"What are you doing in—," she started to say, but Erika interrupted.
"No time. It's Michael. He's hurt and he needs your help." Erika couldn't explain, even to herself, why she thought Selene could help the hybrid, but she knew that Selene was the only one who would.
"What are you talking about?" Selene demanded as she and Erika hurried downstairs and outside.
"Michael and Marcus got into a fight and Marcus won. He's lucky I showed up when I did. Marcus was about to kill him when I came." Selene didn't want to believe that Michael, who had so easily defeated Viktor, had lost to Marcus, but as she saw Michael's bleeding form on the gravel, she knew it was true.
"God dammit," she whispered under her breath. Heedless of the rain, she knelt beside him, turning him onto his back and laying his head in her lap. He moaned in pain as she shifted him, but remained unconscious. "Michael, Michael wake up. Michael, you can't die on me now!" His eyelids fluttered, and he looked up into her eyes.
"Selene? Is that you?" She nodded, tears of gratitude mixing with the rain on her face. He was alive!
"Come on," she said coaxingly. She helped him to his feet and into the passenger side of the car. "Tell Marcus I took Michael to the hospital," she said to Erika. Erika nodded. Selene put the car into gear and drove out of Ordoghaz.
"Where's the lycan hideout these days?" she asked Michael. He told her and she began to drive there. After a few minutes, Michael asked, "Why did you leave?"
"I had to. Why did you come back?"
"I don't know," he replied truthfully.
"Well don't come here again. Next time you won't be so lucky. Marcus will kill you if you come again. Not even Erika will be able to stop him. Got it?" He nodded glumly. "Good. Now go to sleep. Those wounds won't heal if you don't get some rest." Michael nodded again, content to let sleep claim him, for once again, Selene was with him.
Selene rang the doorbell of the huge manor that Michael had said the lycans lived in. A young girl answered the door.
"I need to speak to Raze. It's important."
"I'm sorry," the girl said. "But Raze doesn't associate himself with vampires." She spat the word as if it were a curse word. Selene pulled out one of her Berettas and placed it against the girl's forehead
"Well now he does. Go get him. Now." The girl shut the door and Selene heard her feet running to get, hopefully, Raze.
A few minutes, Raze answered the door, gun in hand. He lowered in when he saw who it was.
"What are you doing here?" he demanded.
"It's Michael. He's hurt. I need help getting him inside." She gestured towards the car, where Raze could see Michael slumped against the window, bare chest covered in blood.
"Alright," Raze said. He followed Selene out to the car. She opened the door and he picked up Michael in his huge arms. Selene followed him into the manor and when Raze laid Michael on a huge bed she presumed was his, she said, "I'll take it from here. Thank you." Raze nodded and left, though he was obviously confused as to why he was allowing the vampire into the house, let alone to take care of his leader. But he did as she asked.
Selene gathered some cloths and warm water from the bathroom, and began to clean the blood of his chest and face. He didn't stir as she gently bathed his face in the warm water, rinsing the caked blood off. Once he was clean, she watched him sleep, hoping he wouldn't wake. She needed to be gone when he woke, or else she wouldn't be able to find an excuse to leave. Not one that he would accept. Not that she wanted to leave, especially now that she knew she was carrying his child. But still, she knew she had to. She was a vampire and he was a hybrid. She swept her eyes over him one last time, slowly taking in his handsome features, muscular chest and arms, and the smoothness of his skin. She gently caressed his cheek, her other hand on her stomach, whispered, "I love you," and left the room.
Raze was waiting outside. He escorted her to the taxi he had called and opened the door for her. He told the driver where to take her, then turned and went back inside.
"What the hell happened?" Erika demanded of Marcus after Selene left.
"We got into a fight," Marcus said with a shrug. At that moment, with Marcus sitting in a chair with his shoulders hunched and Erika standing over him with her hands on her hips, they looked very much like a mother and her disobedient child.
"Explain."
"Well, um, I was out for a little walk and he showed up and we got into a fight. That's all." Erika raised an eyebrow as if to say that she doubted it.
"It's true!" Marcus insisted.
"Why did you fight him?" Erika sounded a little exasperated.
"Because he's a lycan, and I'm a vampire."
"You're both hybrids!" Erika exclaimed.
"But he was a lycan first, and lycans and vampires are natural enemies."
"Marcus, listen to me. Viktor is dead. The war is over. Don't provoke the lycans. Please."
"The war isn't over, Erika. It will never be over. The hatred goes too far back. I'm sorry I worried you, but if we are to exterminate the lycans, we must kill off the leader. And right now, that's Michael."
"Is he going to be okay?" Erika asked Selene later that night.
"He'll be fine." Selene said shortly. She was down in the dojo, firing round after round into the ceramic bust used as a target. "Why do you care?" She put her gun down and looked at the younger vampire beside her.
"Because I know how it is to be in love. I know how I would feel if I lost Marcus."
"I've already lost Michael," Selene said, her tone void of all emotion. She picked up her gun again and resumed fire on the bust. Nothing Erika could have said would have comforted her, so she said nothing.
Michael slept in late the next morning. When he woke, he stretched languidly. He'd had the best dream. He had dreamt that he had gotten into a fight with Marcus and Selene had tended his wounds. Wishing he could go back to sleep, he sat up and swung his legs over the edge of the bed. He glanced at his watch. 12:30.
Crud, he thought as he hurried to get dressed. As he pulled his shirt over his head, his muscles screamed in pain.
What the...? He looked down at himself. There were scars that had not fully healed on his chest. There were a few on his face as well. Was it a dream? He glanced over at the bed and saw that his sheets were bloody in a few places. Was I really in a fight last night? He had assumed it was a dream because there was no way that Selene would have taken him back to Farkas Kikötõ. Would she? He had to find Raze. In his dream, the huge black lycan had carried him to his room where Selene had tended his wounds.
He found Raze in the armory, inspecting guns.
"Uh, Raze," Michael began, unsure how to phrase the question. "Was Selene here last night?"
"Yes. She brought you here after your fight with Marcus, then left."
"Do you know why she left?"
"Because she's a vampire," Raze said as if it were obvious, which to him and Selene, it was. But Michael was still young, not to mention extremely clueless.
"Oh. Um, thanks." Michael left the armory. His dream had been real. But why, then, had Selene left again? He remembered what she had said in the car, "I had to." What had she meant by that?
Disclaimer: I own nothing, except my original characters, please don't sue!
Chapter 5: Not Over Yet
"Kraven, I'm going to kick your ass!" Michael shouted at the vampire, just before transforming. He had met the traitorous vampire on his way back to Farkas Kikötõ and instantly recognized him as the bastard who shot him in the sewers before his fight with Viktor.
Kraven took the opportunity that Michael's transformation presented to pull out his gun and fire a round into the hybrid's chest. The silver stung, but Michael ignored the sharp pain and his transformation continued.
Once fully in hybrid form, he roared at Kraven. What little blood was left in the pale undead's face left it, and he turned and ran, thrusting his gun into the inside of his jacket.
Oh no you don't, Michael thought. You're not getting away that easy! Using his newly developed hybrid speed, Michael raced after Kraven, catching up quickly. Kraven stopped as he found his path impeded by a large, blue hybrid and started at Michael, his face paler than normal and his eyes wide with terror.
"How in the hell...?" he began to say, but before he could complete the question, Michael slammed his clawed fist into Kraven's chin.
"Fuck," Kraven swore as the razor sharp claws dug four deep lines into his face. "If this scars, I'll kill you! Without my perfect face, how will I get Selene to fall in love with me?"
It was the wrong thing to say.
Half an hour later, Michael stalked back to his car, wiping Kraven's blood of his clothes. Despite the heavy beating Michael had given him, Kraven was still alive. Though Michael had eaten someone only two weeks ago, he still held onto his humanity, which wouldn't let him kill Kraven. But he had battered the vampire bloody; Kraven wouldn't be bedding anyone anytime soon. Particularly not Selene.
When he arrived at Farkas Kikötõ, there was another letter from René waiting for him. Nothing she had to say improved his mood.
Each night, Michael dreamed the dream that he could never remember, but terrified him to his core, and each morning, he tired in vain to recall.
But this night was different. Tonight, as he tossed and turned in his sleep, he dreamed a dream that he longed to be real, and yet frightened him to his very core. And when he woke, he would remember.
Michael opened the door to his rooms and smiled when he saw Selene was awake. She was sitting at her desk comparing something on her laptop screen to a pad of paper beside her. Her hair was tousled and she appeared to have just woken up.
"Morning sweetheart," he said, even though it was seven in the evening. He kissed her cheek as he sat down beside her.
"Morning," she replied absently. Michael looked at her laptop to see what was consuming so much of her attention, and saw that it was a solitaire game. On the notepad, she had drawn out the game and was trying to figure out her next move.
"Move the seven onto the eight," he told her, even though his sleeping self was shouting at his dreaming self, This is ridiculous! Selene doesn't play solitaire! She was... but there she was, in his dream, moving the seven of hearts onto the eight of spades. Somehow, this caused a smiley face to pop up and say, "You've won!" over and over again.
"That's why I love you," Selene said silkily, sliding her arms around his neck.
"Because I win solitaire games?" Dream Michael asked while Sleeping Michael thought, This is beyond ridiculous.
"Because you're so smart," she corrected, kissing him, and the passion between them rose quickly, tongues gliding in and out of the kiss. Michael slipped his arms around her waist and she moaned as he sucked on her neck. Suddenly, there was a sharp pain on the side of his neck, and he realized that it was Selene's teeth puncturing his skin. He let her drink, not even struggling against her as she slowly drank every last drop of his blood. At that point, Sleeping Michael detached himself from Dream Michael and watched in horror as the love of his life drank his life from him.
When Michael woke, the terror of the dream had not lessened, though when his waking mind remembered, it was not with the mindless terror that his subconscious did. In fact, it seemed more ridiculous than anything else. Especially the solitaire game. With a sigh, he lay back down and went to sleep.
Michael woke when Raze hammered loudly on his door. Groaning, he rolled over and buried his face in the pillow, muttering, "Five more minutes." The dream had not returned since that night he had remembered it for the first time, and he had treasured the last ten dreamless nights.
"Michael, get up!" Raze said through the door. "There's a phone call for you."
A phone call? Michael sat up, confused. He hadn't known that Farkas Kikötõ had a phone. Everyone used their cell phones if they need to make a phone call, which was very rare.
He got up, adjusting his pants and not bothering to put on a shirt before he opened the door. Raze led him down a series of hallways until he was thoroughly lost. At the end of one hallway was a perfectly normal-looking corded telephone.
Well, I'll be damned, Michael thought.
"Hello?" he said, picking it up.
"Michael?" a familiar voice on the other end of the line asked.
"René?" he exclaimed. "How the fuck did you get this number? I don't even have this number!" I didn't even know we had a phone, he added to himself, but didn't feel the need to share that thought with René.
"Would you like it?" René asked.
"Why are you calling me, René?" Michael asked in a resigned voice.
"I want you back, Michael."
"Did Kraven put you up to this?" he asked suspiciously.
"Who?"
"Never mind. Why are you calling me?"
"I told you, I want you back."
"Surely René, you can't think I'm still in love with you! Not even you can be that dense! It's been three years since you left me without so much as a goodbye, much less an explanation! I've moved on, René, so should you."
"But Michael, I—"
"No buts, René! I don't want you back. Not now, not ever! You may as well get used to it!" He hung up. He was furious, both with René and with himself. Why did she have to call now? Now, when he was not only in love with another woman, but not even human anymore.
Why me? he thought to himself. Why is it always me?
He looked around for Raze, but the large black lycan was gone.
Of course.
Michael hoped he would be able to find his way back to his room through the twisting passages of Farkas Kikötõ by himself.
"Dammit, why won't she leave me alone!" Michael yelled as he saw yet another letter from René sitting on his desk. In the week since the phone call, Michael had received a letter from his wife nearly everyday. Evidently, she had not taken his not-so-subtle hint over the phone, though her letters had gotten much more desperate in the last weeks.
Raze didn't even glance up from the gun he was cleaning.
"I'm going for a drive," Michael snapped, grabbing his keys. Raze nodded absently, still not looking up, as Michael stormed from the room. He had had a long day trying to find out what the vampires were up to, and the letter from René had been the final straw.
He jammed the keys into the ignition and started the car. He lowered the roof of his Viper to let the wind blast full force onto his face, heedless of the storm that had been brewing all day. He drove quickly, not paying attention to where he was going. He didn't know how long he'd been driving, only that night had fallen, when he realized that he was outside the gates to Ordoghaz.
Shit, he thought, putting the car in reverse and turning around to be sure he didn't hit anything. And when he turned, he saw a figure standing behind the car. Directly above the figure was the cloud-covered gibbous moon. It was going to rain soon. He put the top back up and got out of the car to face the figure, taking off his shirt in case he had to fight.
"Michael," the figure said as the rain began to fall. A lightning strike lit the scene, and Michael could see that the figure was around six feet tall, with light hair and eyes. His skin had a golden tan, though Michael's nose told him that the man was a vampire. The vampire stepped forward as he continued to talk. "It's nice to meet you at last. Our intelligence service has been absolutely abuzz with news of you." As the vampire drew nearer, Michael amended his early classification. This man was not just a vampire. He was a hybrid...and an Elder.
Marcus.
"What do you want Marcus?" Michael asked. He could see the Elder's eyes were turning black as the change began to take over. He allowed his own body to begin the shift into its other form.
"The extermination of your species," Marcus said with a growl just before the final part of the transformation occurred and speech became impossible. Michael was only a step behind, his body already blue and his skeleton reforming itself.
Marcus struck first, his body full of a grace and power Michael had never seen before. He roared in pain as the other hybrid's claws caught him across the chest. He lashed out with his own claws, but only swiped at the air as the older hybrid jumped back. He swung again, this time catching Marcus across the cheek with the tip of one claw. The fight had begun.
Marcus was harder to fight than Viktor. He was older than Michael, and though he was less experienced with his hybrid form, he was still a much better fighter. Michael no longer had the advantage. Marcus was also not blinded by hate and rage, as Viktor had been. He fought, not for his life, but for pleasure. For he was enjoying the fight immensely, as Michael could see. The thought horrified him, and that caused him to hesitate long enough for Marcus to gain the upper hand.
Michael lay on the ground, bleeding from several cuts on his chest, back, and face. Marcus raised his hand to deliver the killing blow when a voice came floating across the driveway from the entrance of Ordoghaz.
"Marcus? Marcus, are you out here?" Footsteps crunched on the gravel as the speaker came towards them. Then a gasp as whoever-it-was saw the condition of both Marcus and Michael.
"Oh my God," the woman said.
"Erika, it's not how it looks," Marcus said, back in human form.
"Get inside and clean yourself up," she ordered, as if she had some power over him. But she evidently did, for a few moments later Michael could hear the Elder's footsteps on the gravel. He tried to pick himself up off the ground, but found that he couldn't; it was too painful. The woman, the vampire, he corrected himself, knelt beside him. His eyes were closed from the pain, but she spoke.
"Michael, Michael, wake up." His eyes opened, and he saw the same levitating blonde woman who had wanted to turn him the one night he spent in Ordoghaz. "I'm going to get Selene; stay right here." As if he could go anywhere, even if he wanted to. But the mention of Selene rooted him to the ground as securely as actual roots.
Selene is going to kill me, Erika thought as she rushed through the hallways of Ordoghaz to the Death Dealer's rooms. She knocked hastily and entered without waiting for an answer. Inside, Selene was starring blankly at her laptop, lost in a solitaire game that she was clearly loosing. She looked up as Erika burst into the room.
"What are you doing in—," she started to say, but Erika interrupted.
"No time. It's Michael. He's hurt and he needs your help." Erika couldn't explain, even to herself, why she thought Selene could help the hybrid, but she knew that Selene was the only one who would.
"What are you talking about?" Selene demanded as she and Erika hurried downstairs and outside.
"Michael and Marcus got into a fight and Marcus won. He's lucky I showed up when I did. Marcus was about to kill him when I came." Selene didn't want to believe that Michael, who had so easily defeated Viktor, had lost to Marcus, but as she saw Michael's bleeding form on the gravel, she knew it was true.
"God dammit," she whispered under her breath. Heedless of the rain, she knelt beside him, turning him onto his back and laying his head in her lap. He moaned in pain as she shifted him, but remained unconscious. "Michael, Michael wake up. Michael, you can't die on me now!" His eyelids fluttered, and he looked up into her eyes.
"Selene? Is that you?" She nodded, tears of gratitude mixing with the rain on her face. He was alive!
"Come on," she said coaxingly. She helped him to his feet and into the passenger side of the car. "Tell Marcus I took Michael to the hospital," she said to Erika. Erika nodded. Selene put the car into gear and drove out of Ordoghaz.
"Where's the lycan hideout these days?" she asked Michael. He told her and she began to drive there. After a few minutes, Michael asked, "Why did you leave?"
"I had to. Why did you come back?"
"I don't know," he replied truthfully.
"Well don't come here again. Next time you won't be so lucky. Marcus will kill you if you come again. Not even Erika will be able to stop him. Got it?" He nodded glumly. "Good. Now go to sleep. Those wounds won't heal if you don't get some rest." Michael nodded again, content to let sleep claim him, for once again, Selene was with him.
Selene rang the doorbell of the huge manor that Michael had said the lycans lived in. A young girl answered the door.
"I need to speak to Raze. It's important."
"I'm sorry," the girl said. "But Raze doesn't associate himself with vampires." She spat the word as if it were a curse word. Selene pulled out one of her Berettas and placed it against the girl's forehead
"Well now he does. Go get him. Now." The girl shut the door and Selene heard her feet running to get, hopefully, Raze.
A few minutes, Raze answered the door, gun in hand. He lowered in when he saw who it was.
"What are you doing here?" he demanded.
"It's Michael. He's hurt. I need help getting him inside." She gestured towards the car, where Raze could see Michael slumped against the window, bare chest covered in blood.
"Alright," Raze said. He followed Selene out to the car. She opened the door and he picked up Michael in his huge arms. Selene followed him into the manor and when Raze laid Michael on a huge bed she presumed was his, she said, "I'll take it from here. Thank you." Raze nodded and left, though he was obviously confused as to why he was allowing the vampire into the house, let alone to take care of his leader. But he did as she asked.
Selene gathered some cloths and warm water from the bathroom, and began to clean the blood of his chest and face. He didn't stir as she gently bathed his face in the warm water, rinsing the caked blood off. Once he was clean, she watched him sleep, hoping he wouldn't wake. She needed to be gone when he woke, or else she wouldn't be able to find an excuse to leave. Not one that he would accept. Not that she wanted to leave, especially now that she knew she was carrying his child. But still, she knew she had to. She was a vampire and he was a hybrid. She swept her eyes over him one last time, slowly taking in his handsome features, muscular chest and arms, and the smoothness of his skin. She gently caressed his cheek, her other hand on her stomach, whispered, "I love you," and left the room.
Raze was waiting outside. He escorted her to the taxi he had called and opened the door for her. He told the driver where to take her, then turned and went back inside.
"What the hell happened?" Erika demanded of Marcus after Selene left.
"We got into a fight," Marcus said with a shrug. At that moment, with Marcus sitting in a chair with his shoulders hunched and Erika standing over him with her hands on her hips, they looked very much like a mother and her disobedient child.
"Explain."
"Well, um, I was out for a little walk and he showed up and we got into a fight. That's all." Erika raised an eyebrow as if to say that she doubted it.
"It's true!" Marcus insisted.
"Why did you fight him?" Erika sounded a little exasperated.
"Because he's a lycan, and I'm a vampire."
"You're both hybrids!" Erika exclaimed.
"But he was a lycan first, and lycans and vampires are natural enemies."
"Marcus, listen to me. Viktor is dead. The war is over. Don't provoke the lycans. Please."
"The war isn't over, Erika. It will never be over. The hatred goes too far back. I'm sorry I worried you, but if we are to exterminate the lycans, we must kill off the leader. And right now, that's Michael."
"Is he going to be okay?" Erika asked Selene later that night.
"He'll be fine." Selene said shortly. She was down in the dojo, firing round after round into the ceramic bust used as a target. "Why do you care?" She put her gun down and looked at the younger vampire beside her.
"Because I know how it is to be in love. I know how I would feel if I lost Marcus."
"I've already lost Michael," Selene said, her tone void of all emotion. She picked up her gun again and resumed fire on the bust. Nothing Erika could have said would have comforted her, so she said nothing.
Michael slept in late the next morning. When he woke, he stretched languidly. He'd had the best dream. He had dreamt that he had gotten into a fight with Marcus and Selene had tended his wounds. Wishing he could go back to sleep, he sat up and swung his legs over the edge of the bed. He glanced at his watch. 12:30.
Crud, he thought as he hurried to get dressed. As he pulled his shirt over his head, his muscles screamed in pain.
What the...? He looked down at himself. There were scars that had not fully healed on his chest. There were a few on his face as well. Was it a dream? He glanced over at the bed and saw that his sheets were bloody in a few places. Was I really in a fight last night? He had assumed it was a dream because there was no way that Selene would have taken him back to Farkas Kikötõ. Would she? He had to find Raze. In his dream, the huge black lycan had carried him to his room where Selene had tended his wounds.
He found Raze in the armory, inspecting guns.
"Uh, Raze," Michael began, unsure how to phrase the question. "Was Selene here last night?"
"Yes. She brought you here after your fight with Marcus, then left."
"Do you know why she left?"
"Because she's a vampire," Raze said as if it were obvious, which to him and Selene, it was. But Michael was still young, not to mention extremely clueless.
"Oh. Um, thanks." Michael left the armory. His dream had been real. But why, then, had Selene left again? He remembered what she had said in the car, "I had to." What had she meant by that?