A/N: It's the chapter you've all been waiting for! And it the case of some,
bugging me for! Well, I hope I get a lot of reviews after this chapter
because I think it was a highly anticipated chapter. Or maybe I'm giving
myself too much credit. Just a warning: I was feeling more romantic than
usual when I wrote this, so sorry if it seems a bit too mushy, or over the
top. BTW: if anyone has a suggestion for a better chapter name, feel free
to voice your opinion. I don't like the name of this chapter, but I
couldn't think of anything else. Sorry, my chapter title muse is on
vacation. BTW2: a HUGE thank you to moose (aka vampirehuntr00) for BETAing
this for me and for being my muse! THANKS MOOSEY!!!
Disclaimer: don't own, don't sue. KK?
Chapter 10: Together
"You want me to do what!" Selene said, echoing Erika's words earlier that night. Kestral and Erika had just returned and told Xavier that Michael wanted to have a party the next night. And Xavier wanted all the renegades to come. Including Selene.
"I don't see what's so bad about it," Erika said. "It's just a dress."
"It's pink! I refuse to wear pink!"
"You'd look good in pink," Erika insisted.
"No pink."
"How about this one?" she said, pulling out a green frilly dress.
Selene crossed her arms. "I don't see why I have to wear a dress anyway."
"Because it's a party Selene," Erika said, exasperated. "You have to wear a dress to party."
"Kestral," Selene pleaded.
"She's right Selene," Kestral said. "How about this one?" She pulled out a simple black dress, rather too dressy looking for Selene's tastes, but otherwise looked okay.
Selene sighed. "If I have to wear the dress, I guess that one will work."
~~~
The night, Selene stepped into the limo with Kestral and Xavier. The back of the dress had surprised Selene. Her back had been bared almost to her hips, but it didn't show as much as Erika's dress, which barely covered her front.
Kestral had curled Selene's hair so that it fell in gentle waves to her shoulders and applied a light layer of makeup to Selene's eyes, emphasizing her pale complexion and dark eyes. Selene had to admit that she looked beautiful.
*I can't believe I'm doing this,* she thought. *What if Michael sees me? What do I say to him? What must he think of me after all this?* Dread grew in her stomach as they drew closer to Farkas Kikötõ. She had protested strongly when Xavier had insisted she go, and when Kestral had made her put on the dress, and when she had curled her hair and put on her makeup, she had protested. But here she was, sitting in the limo, almost to Farkas Kikötõ.
As they pulled into the drive, she turned to Xavier and asked, "Do I have to do this?"
Xavier nodded, and Kestral said, "You have to face him sometime." Selene swallowed hard and nodded.
*For Ravyn,* she thought. *I'll do this for Ravyn.*
They pulled into the drive, and Selene steeled herself and got out of the limo, trying unsuccessfully to keep her dress from tangling in legs. Kestral caught her elbow before she fell and Selene straightened the dress, trying to keep her balance on her heeled shoes. She had worn heeled boots before, but they were nothing like the dress shoes she wore now. Kestral supported her until she was sure Selene could stand on her own, then let go, understanding that Selene needed to approach the manor on her own.
They rang the doorbell, and a young lycan girl, perhaps nineteen years old, opened the door. She showed the vampires into a large ball room, where both lycans and vampires were already eating and talking and dancing in their best clothes, though not with each other. Xavier and Kestral went off to talk to other high-ranking vampires, and Selene, left alone, drifted towards the food table.
The party reminded her of a middle school dance, boys on one side, girls on the other. Only in this case it was lycans on one side, vampires on the other. Selene wondered vaguely where Michael had gotten the blood for the vampires, but decided she really didn't want to know.
She picked up what looked like a champagne glass, but was filled with crimson blood, rather than champagne, and sipped from it, trying to place the taste. It tasted very similar to the cow blood she used to drink before the cloned blood had become the coven's main food source, but much finer. She took another sip, letting the warm liquid slide over her tongue and down her throat, trying to place the taste.
The band at the front of the room finished their song, and everyone turned and clapped. The director acknowledged them with a little bow, and then began the next song. Selene was interested to see that all the members of the little band were lycans. She had no idea lycans had class.
Selene turned when she felt a hand on her shoulder. She set down her glass and turned, half-dreading what she would see behind her, and knowing all the time who it was. She had been dreading this confrontation since Xavier insisted she go.
"Michael," she breathed at seeing his face at last, dragging her eyes away from his pale lips up to his gray eyes. She gazed into them and saw an uncertainty there. An uncertainty that she longed to kiss away, but was too afraid to.
"Selene." An awkward pause followed and each of them longed to break the silence surrounding their hearts, but neither dared.
"Would you like to dance?" he asked after the long moment had passed. She nodded, not trusting her voice.
They stepped onto the dance floor and Michael's arms encircled her. They were close, but not as close as either would have liked, but both were too afraid and uncertain to close that final distance between them.
They moved with the music, the slow enchanting sound of a harp directing their movements. Michael's hand quivered on her waist and she sense that he wanted to step closer, or away, and she couldn't tell which.
"I can't do this Selene," he said, hands barely touching the cool skin of her back.
"I can't keep holding you in my arms and not know how you feel." His hands dropped to his sides and they stood there, perfectly motionless among a sea of dancers, gazing into each other's eyes.
At last Michael said, seeing she wasn't going to answer his question, "Why did you leave?"
"Must we have this discussion here?" Selene asked, glancing nervously at the dancers around them.
Michael shook his head and gently took her hand, pulling her off the dance floor and away from the party. He led her up a large twisting staircase, down a hall, and through a door she recognized from her one time in the manor as his own.
Inside, Michael released her hand and repeated his question.
"Why did you leave?"
She was silent for a long time and Michael knew she was thinking. She sat in a chair as she thought, her hands in her lap, fiddling with the folds of her black gown. He watched her hands, so slender and pale. Hands that could hold and fire a weapon with the same ease and grace that he had seen as they caressed his body on their single night together.
His eyes wandered from her pale hands to her face. They lingered slightly on her red lips, so sharply contrasting with her porcelain skin, and then moved up to her brown eyes, tinged only slightly with icy vampiress blue. There was a sadness in her eyes, he noted. It had been there all night and was the only hint in her stony expression that her once frozen heart had melted.
At last, her hands fell still and she looked directly at him, as she had avoided doing since she had entered his room.
"I had to," she told him flatly, her voice void of any emotion. "If I had stayed with you, the lycans would never have accepted you, and they needed you, with Lucian dead. If I hadn't left when I did—"
"But you don't know that Selene!" Michael exploded. "They might have accepted you too. You never gave them a chance!"
"I do know, Michael!" Selene shouted back. "I've been a part of this war for five hundred years Michael! The hatred between vampires and lycans was strong then, and it has only gotten stronger! This was has lasted for nearly 800 years. It doesn't matter to the lycans that I killed Viktor. One vampire death, even that of an Elder, does not make up for the thousands of lycans I killed. Can't you understand? They would never allow you to lead them if you were with me. can't you understand that?"
"They let Lucian lead them," Michael pointed out. "He was in love with a vampyre."
"That was before the war Michael."
"I don't care! I don't care what they think! I love you Selene and I don't give a damn what the lycans think." He paused and then said, so quietly she almost couldn't hear, "I used to think you felt the same." He couldn't look at her, despite how much he wanted to, because he knew he would see only her stony expression.
"Michael, I..." Her voice caught and he looked up. There were tears in her eyes, though none had yet made it to her cheeks. He took two steps forward and enfolded her in his arms. Her cheek pressed against his strong chest and she whispered, "Michael, I do love you." He looked down at her, surprised at the frank admission made without any coaxing. Her eyes were shut and she was struggling with her tears. He kissed her eyelids, causing the tears to slip from beneath the closed lids. He kissed the tears from her cheeks, then eased his lips gently, almost hesitantly, over hers.
She could taste the salt from her tears in his kiss. Her arms snaked around his neck, pulling their faces closer. She opened her lips under his and his tongue obediently traced the outline of her lips before initiating an amorous dance with her own.
Selene's hands found the neck of his jacket and pushed it off his shoulders. She pulled her mouth reluctantly away and untied his tie. Her hands moved to begin unbuttoning his shirt.
Michael watched her unbutton each button with such a fierce concentration, he would have thought all her attention was focused on the task. But the glances she was directing downwards were not directed at the next button.
~~~
When Selene woke, she was in Michael's arms, the warmth radiating from his bare body warming her own. She snuggled closer, glad of both the warmth and the fact that it wasn't merely a dream. She was awake, and really in Michael's arms. She smiled contentedly as she studied his sleeping face. She traced his jaw line with a finger and he stirred, tightening his arms around her as he woke.
"Not leaving, I hope," he said.
"It's morning," she told him. "I couldn't leave even if I wanted to. Did we miss the end of the party?"
"Probably."
"Perfect," she purred, moving in to kiss him passionately.
~~~
"You know I wasn't really expecting to see you tonight," Michael said conversationally. His head was propped up on his hand, and he looked down at Selene, who lay in the bed beside him. "Knowing your dislike of parties and all."
"Xavier made me come," she said sourly. "I didn't want to."
"Why not?"
"I was afraid to face you," she said quietly.
"Why?"
"After leaving you, twice, I was afraid of what you would think. And I..." she trailed off.
"And what?"
"I feel like a shower," Selene said abruptly, getting up and stretching. "How about you?" Without waiting for an answer, she walked into the bathroom and turned on the hot water.
"Selene," Michael said, getting up and following her. "What's the matter?"
"It's nothing," she insisted, testing the water before stepping inside. Michael followed.
"Selene, tell me what's bothering you. I promise I won't laugh."
Selene sighed, brushing her wet hair out of her face.
"You know the terms of the alliance?"
"Yes," Michael said slowly.
"The child, the one the renegades want," Michael nodded, and Selene took a deep breath before continuing, "She's my daughter." Her head tilted back against the tiled wall of the shower, and she closed her eyes as she leaned against it, relieved to have her secret out at last.
Michael stared at her, his gray eyes almost bugging out of his head. A child? When had she had a child? And with who? How could she do this to him?
A smile tugged at Selene's lips as she remembered her daughter's small face.
"She has my nose."
How could she?
"And your eyes."
Michael's eyes grew even wider, if that were possible. He stared at her for a few seconds, uncomprehending, and then his hands reached out and gripped her shoulders.
"I have a daughter?" he said stupidly. Selene nodded, her lips curving up in a smile.
"I have a daughter!" Michael exclaimed before capturing her lips in a fierce kiss.
~~~
Dusk found them back in Michael's large bed. Michael seemed to have developed a fascination with Selene's stomach since the new that it had once carried a child.
"She's not in there anymore," Selene informed him as he traced a finger over her now-flat belly.
"I know, but still," he said absently, attention completely absorbed by her midriff. She opened her mouth to reply laughingly, but a loud knock interrupted her.
"Not now," Michael called, shifting his attention to her lips and kissing them. She smiled beneath his lips, but the knock came again.
"Michael, there's a woman here to see you," Raze's voice came through the door.
Without missing a beat, Michael lifted his lips from Selene's and said, "Tell her I'm busy," before returning his attention to Selene's mouth.
"Michael, she says her name's René."
Michael jerked his head up in surprise and stared in shock at the door. Then, muttering a curse under his breath, he climbed out of bed and began looking for his pants.
Selene watched him as he found the pants and tugged them on. When he turned to look for his shirt, she asked, "Who's René?"
Disclaimer: don't own, don't sue. KK?
Chapter 10: Together
"You want me to do what!" Selene said, echoing Erika's words earlier that night. Kestral and Erika had just returned and told Xavier that Michael wanted to have a party the next night. And Xavier wanted all the renegades to come. Including Selene.
"I don't see what's so bad about it," Erika said. "It's just a dress."
"It's pink! I refuse to wear pink!"
"You'd look good in pink," Erika insisted.
"No pink."
"How about this one?" she said, pulling out a green frilly dress.
Selene crossed her arms. "I don't see why I have to wear a dress anyway."
"Because it's a party Selene," Erika said, exasperated. "You have to wear a dress to party."
"Kestral," Selene pleaded.
"She's right Selene," Kestral said. "How about this one?" She pulled out a simple black dress, rather too dressy looking for Selene's tastes, but otherwise looked okay.
Selene sighed. "If I have to wear the dress, I guess that one will work."
~~~
The night, Selene stepped into the limo with Kestral and Xavier. The back of the dress had surprised Selene. Her back had been bared almost to her hips, but it didn't show as much as Erika's dress, which barely covered her front.
Kestral had curled Selene's hair so that it fell in gentle waves to her shoulders and applied a light layer of makeup to Selene's eyes, emphasizing her pale complexion and dark eyes. Selene had to admit that she looked beautiful.
*I can't believe I'm doing this,* she thought. *What if Michael sees me? What do I say to him? What must he think of me after all this?* Dread grew in her stomach as they drew closer to Farkas Kikötõ. She had protested strongly when Xavier had insisted she go, and when Kestral had made her put on the dress, and when she had curled her hair and put on her makeup, she had protested. But here she was, sitting in the limo, almost to Farkas Kikötõ.
As they pulled into the drive, she turned to Xavier and asked, "Do I have to do this?"
Xavier nodded, and Kestral said, "You have to face him sometime." Selene swallowed hard and nodded.
*For Ravyn,* she thought. *I'll do this for Ravyn.*
They pulled into the drive, and Selene steeled herself and got out of the limo, trying unsuccessfully to keep her dress from tangling in legs. Kestral caught her elbow before she fell and Selene straightened the dress, trying to keep her balance on her heeled shoes. She had worn heeled boots before, but they were nothing like the dress shoes she wore now. Kestral supported her until she was sure Selene could stand on her own, then let go, understanding that Selene needed to approach the manor on her own.
They rang the doorbell, and a young lycan girl, perhaps nineteen years old, opened the door. She showed the vampires into a large ball room, where both lycans and vampires were already eating and talking and dancing in their best clothes, though not with each other. Xavier and Kestral went off to talk to other high-ranking vampires, and Selene, left alone, drifted towards the food table.
The party reminded her of a middle school dance, boys on one side, girls on the other. Only in this case it was lycans on one side, vampires on the other. Selene wondered vaguely where Michael had gotten the blood for the vampires, but decided she really didn't want to know.
She picked up what looked like a champagne glass, but was filled with crimson blood, rather than champagne, and sipped from it, trying to place the taste. It tasted very similar to the cow blood she used to drink before the cloned blood had become the coven's main food source, but much finer. She took another sip, letting the warm liquid slide over her tongue and down her throat, trying to place the taste.
The band at the front of the room finished their song, and everyone turned and clapped. The director acknowledged them with a little bow, and then began the next song. Selene was interested to see that all the members of the little band were lycans. She had no idea lycans had class.
Selene turned when she felt a hand on her shoulder. She set down her glass and turned, half-dreading what she would see behind her, and knowing all the time who it was. She had been dreading this confrontation since Xavier insisted she go.
"Michael," she breathed at seeing his face at last, dragging her eyes away from his pale lips up to his gray eyes. She gazed into them and saw an uncertainty there. An uncertainty that she longed to kiss away, but was too afraid to.
"Selene." An awkward pause followed and each of them longed to break the silence surrounding their hearts, but neither dared.
"Would you like to dance?" he asked after the long moment had passed. She nodded, not trusting her voice.
They stepped onto the dance floor and Michael's arms encircled her. They were close, but not as close as either would have liked, but both were too afraid and uncertain to close that final distance between them.
They moved with the music, the slow enchanting sound of a harp directing their movements. Michael's hand quivered on her waist and she sense that he wanted to step closer, or away, and she couldn't tell which.
"I can't do this Selene," he said, hands barely touching the cool skin of her back.
"I can't keep holding you in my arms and not know how you feel." His hands dropped to his sides and they stood there, perfectly motionless among a sea of dancers, gazing into each other's eyes.
At last Michael said, seeing she wasn't going to answer his question, "Why did you leave?"
"Must we have this discussion here?" Selene asked, glancing nervously at the dancers around them.
Michael shook his head and gently took her hand, pulling her off the dance floor and away from the party. He led her up a large twisting staircase, down a hall, and through a door she recognized from her one time in the manor as his own.
Inside, Michael released her hand and repeated his question.
"Why did you leave?"
She was silent for a long time and Michael knew she was thinking. She sat in a chair as she thought, her hands in her lap, fiddling with the folds of her black gown. He watched her hands, so slender and pale. Hands that could hold and fire a weapon with the same ease and grace that he had seen as they caressed his body on their single night together.
His eyes wandered from her pale hands to her face. They lingered slightly on her red lips, so sharply contrasting with her porcelain skin, and then moved up to her brown eyes, tinged only slightly with icy vampiress blue. There was a sadness in her eyes, he noted. It had been there all night and was the only hint in her stony expression that her once frozen heart had melted.
At last, her hands fell still and she looked directly at him, as she had avoided doing since she had entered his room.
"I had to," she told him flatly, her voice void of any emotion. "If I had stayed with you, the lycans would never have accepted you, and they needed you, with Lucian dead. If I hadn't left when I did—"
"But you don't know that Selene!" Michael exploded. "They might have accepted you too. You never gave them a chance!"
"I do know, Michael!" Selene shouted back. "I've been a part of this war for five hundred years Michael! The hatred between vampires and lycans was strong then, and it has only gotten stronger! This was has lasted for nearly 800 years. It doesn't matter to the lycans that I killed Viktor. One vampire death, even that of an Elder, does not make up for the thousands of lycans I killed. Can't you understand? They would never allow you to lead them if you were with me. can't you understand that?"
"They let Lucian lead them," Michael pointed out. "He was in love with a vampyre."
"That was before the war Michael."
"I don't care! I don't care what they think! I love you Selene and I don't give a damn what the lycans think." He paused and then said, so quietly she almost couldn't hear, "I used to think you felt the same." He couldn't look at her, despite how much he wanted to, because he knew he would see only her stony expression.
"Michael, I..." Her voice caught and he looked up. There were tears in her eyes, though none had yet made it to her cheeks. He took two steps forward and enfolded her in his arms. Her cheek pressed against his strong chest and she whispered, "Michael, I do love you." He looked down at her, surprised at the frank admission made without any coaxing. Her eyes were shut and she was struggling with her tears. He kissed her eyelids, causing the tears to slip from beneath the closed lids. He kissed the tears from her cheeks, then eased his lips gently, almost hesitantly, over hers.
She could taste the salt from her tears in his kiss. Her arms snaked around his neck, pulling their faces closer. She opened her lips under his and his tongue obediently traced the outline of her lips before initiating an amorous dance with her own.
Selene's hands found the neck of his jacket and pushed it off his shoulders. She pulled her mouth reluctantly away and untied his tie. Her hands moved to begin unbuttoning his shirt.
Michael watched her unbutton each button with such a fierce concentration, he would have thought all her attention was focused on the task. But the glances she was directing downwards were not directed at the next button.
~~~
When Selene woke, she was in Michael's arms, the warmth radiating from his bare body warming her own. She snuggled closer, glad of both the warmth and the fact that it wasn't merely a dream. She was awake, and really in Michael's arms. She smiled contentedly as she studied his sleeping face. She traced his jaw line with a finger and he stirred, tightening his arms around her as he woke.
"Not leaving, I hope," he said.
"It's morning," she told him. "I couldn't leave even if I wanted to. Did we miss the end of the party?"
"Probably."
"Perfect," she purred, moving in to kiss him passionately.
~~~
"You know I wasn't really expecting to see you tonight," Michael said conversationally. His head was propped up on his hand, and he looked down at Selene, who lay in the bed beside him. "Knowing your dislike of parties and all."
"Xavier made me come," she said sourly. "I didn't want to."
"Why not?"
"I was afraid to face you," she said quietly.
"Why?"
"After leaving you, twice, I was afraid of what you would think. And I..." she trailed off.
"And what?"
"I feel like a shower," Selene said abruptly, getting up and stretching. "How about you?" Without waiting for an answer, she walked into the bathroom and turned on the hot water.
"Selene," Michael said, getting up and following her. "What's the matter?"
"It's nothing," she insisted, testing the water before stepping inside. Michael followed.
"Selene, tell me what's bothering you. I promise I won't laugh."
Selene sighed, brushing her wet hair out of her face.
"You know the terms of the alliance?"
"Yes," Michael said slowly.
"The child, the one the renegades want," Michael nodded, and Selene took a deep breath before continuing, "She's my daughter." Her head tilted back against the tiled wall of the shower, and she closed her eyes as she leaned against it, relieved to have her secret out at last.
Michael stared at her, his gray eyes almost bugging out of his head. A child? When had she had a child? And with who? How could she do this to him?
A smile tugged at Selene's lips as she remembered her daughter's small face.
"She has my nose."
How could she?
"And your eyes."
Michael's eyes grew even wider, if that were possible. He stared at her for a few seconds, uncomprehending, and then his hands reached out and gripped her shoulders.
"I have a daughter?" he said stupidly. Selene nodded, her lips curving up in a smile.
"I have a daughter!" Michael exclaimed before capturing her lips in a fierce kiss.
~~~
Dusk found them back in Michael's large bed. Michael seemed to have developed a fascination with Selene's stomach since the new that it had once carried a child.
"She's not in there anymore," Selene informed him as he traced a finger over her now-flat belly.
"I know, but still," he said absently, attention completely absorbed by her midriff. She opened her mouth to reply laughingly, but a loud knock interrupted her.
"Not now," Michael called, shifting his attention to her lips and kissing them. She smiled beneath his lips, but the knock came again.
"Michael, there's a woman here to see you," Raze's voice came through the door.
Without missing a beat, Michael lifted his lips from Selene's and said, "Tell her I'm busy," before returning his attention to Selene's mouth.
"Michael, she says her name's René."
Michael jerked his head up in surprise and stared in shock at the door. Then, muttering a curse under his breath, he climbed out of bed and began looking for his pants.
Selene watched him as he found the pants and tugged them on. When he turned to look for his shirt, she asked, "Who's René?"