Chapter 17

It happened in a flash. Charli smelled it for one second. She made a sharp turn. Michael paused, but followed her without question. She ran to a familiar alley, then up an apartment's fire escape. She looked intently at the rooftops of Budapest. She chose a direction, leaping over from roof to roof. She stopped when her blue form reached a stone tower. The curves and points of the tower were depicted from the fading moonlight.

Below, Michael could see the subway. Where it all started.

They walked through the tower. A short walkway led them to Selene underneath the covering of stone. Her strong body was sprawled out.

Daylight was less than ten minutes away.

"Michael," Charli said in a choked whisper, "We won't have enough time."

"I know." His voice was barely audible. His insides twisted around. He became quite furious in few seconds, "I know Charli!"

He took off his trench coat given to him by the lycans so he could shed it before transformation. He wrapped her up tightly making sure none of her white skin showed. He held her in his arms and rocked her slightly. What made her go unconscious wasn't normal. Something was definitely wrong, Charli smelt it.

He scooted himself and Selene far enough into a corner so that the sunlight would only, hopefully, touch Michael's skin.

Charli sat next to him. "Why do you think she is unconscious?"

"I don't know. Probably from being in a coma-like state for a week effected her and screwed up her thought process. That would be my guess." Michael spoke like the doctor his was trained to be.

"Nice guess." Charli looked at the sky and smiled.

"C'mon! Aren't you going to tell me anything?" Corrine whined again.

"When you're older. And I'm married. And I have graying hair."

"That's a load of bull. Besides, give me three guesses what you were doing with Bryant."

It had been almost a week since Bryant's visit and the disturbing news of Michael's disappearance. The sun's bright rays covered the three girls. Bryant had offered to go with them to the sketchy parts of Budapest, where Michael resided during the attack.

Elyse glared at her little sister. JJ smiled. Corrine had dyed her hair back to her normal natural jet black color.

They finally reached the fifth floor. They elevator was broken and it was no wonder, as they saw when they walked down the hallway. The ugly tope wallpaper was ripped in shreds. The ceiling was falling off piece by little piece. They reached the end of the hallway where the man below had told Elyse where Michael used to live. When they asked the man, he responded that he hadn't seen Michael in two weeks.

They stepped into his room. The stained ceiling was also ruined in parts. His clothes were strewn about like someone had gone through his things quickly. Most of his stuff was broken and dirty. Some of his stuff seemed missing.

"What the hell happened here?" Elyse said aloud. He used to be so neat. Where is the Michael I know?

A man appeared in the doorway and startled her. "Who are you?" His voice was dark like his black curly hair.

"I'm looking for my brother, Michael, have you seen him?" Elyse asked. She might as well try to ask anyone who may have had contact with him. She didn't know whom he hung out with.

"I'm Adam." The tanned man said quickly, offering a hand.

Elyse took it warily. Adam could see her skepticism, and quickly tried to deplete any awkwardness. "I'm an intern at St. John's hospital. I worked with Michael. We were friends."

"Oh," was all Elyse could answer. Maybe he knew about what happened. Elyse thought. She looked back at Adam. He looked like he had a horror story to tell. "What is it? What happened to him?"

Adam threw his hands up in relief. "Michael came into the hospital one night saying he was having hallucinations and was bitten by a man." The sound of Adam's voice clearly stated that he thought Michael was a lunatic.

"Lycan." Elyse whispered unaware that anyone heard her.

"You mean he was serious?" Adam's eyes popped out.

"What are you doing here?" Another voice behind Adam's made Elyse jump. A tall man clad in leather spoke down to Elyse. His eyes penetrated hers.

"Um. I'm Elyse. My brother, Michael Corvin, used to live here. Would you happen to know where he is?" Elyse asked now desperately hoping there was another answer.

"Corvin? Sister, you say?"

"You know him?"

"Hey," The man called out into the hallway, "Alexander. We have another candidate!" The man turned back to Elyse with a sinister grin.

"What are you talking about?" Corrine interjected from Elyse's furious glare.

"What do you mean candidate?" Elyse asked.

A man walked in and looked from his friend to the odd crowd of people in Michael's old apartment. The man had blonde short hair curled from the root to the tips. He had dark gray eyes that could easily bore into your soul and not tell you a thing. He had a lean build, but was short. He wore an interesting combination of blue frayed jeans and a black flannel shirt that had an awkward design that appeared to be some kind of Celtic symbol near the collar. He had on leather black shoes that could barely be seen as it was hidden under his long jeans.

"Who are you?" Corrine demanded, emphasizing on every word. She particularly didn't enjoy being in the dark especially with men she had no idea who the hell they were.

"Alexander, would you mind taking them down to the car?" The other man said curtly.

"Why? They don't know anything." The man whose name was Alexander said in an annoying voice. Elyse could hear the odd Irish accent.

"Alexander." The man said quietly, but in a warning tone.

Alexander sighed deeply. "Follow me," he ordered to the crowd in his thick Irish accent.

"No way in hell we'd follow you!" Corrine, being very stubborn, said sternly.

"I'd appreciate, miss, if I didn't have to force you to the car," he spoke down to Corrine who was the same height as he was. "Trust me. It would be a most uncomfortable thing."

Corrine eyed him with anger bubbling on the surface like a soda pop. Elyse gave her a warning glare, however, that made her push back the millions of responses to the unfriendly handsome stranger. Corrine followed stomping furiously with every step.

Elyse, JJ, and the doctor, Adam, followed Corrine in a similar manner.

The fiery sun had finally gone down and Michael shook Selene awake. Her eyes fluttered open and Charli saw her mouth form the word of 'shit', but it never came out.

"Selene! Are you OK?" Michael's voice was worried, but had an accusing tone.

"Yes." She said something she probably didn't feel. In fact, she felt like shit, but Michael held her close under the curve of his chin.

Michael wanted terribly to kiss the pale lips, but thought better of it. Instead he cradled her body for a few more moments, not ever wanting to let go of her.

"Well we'd better get a move on because I smell Death Dealers half a click southwest." Charli announced, licking her finger and pointing it out in the air jokingly. She knew she would have to break up this love-fest sooner or later. It just so happened to be sooner.

Selene looked at her and noticed she was there for the first time. "Yeah. Sure." Selene mumbled under her breath. Michael looked at her with curiosity, but repressed the questions until a later time when they weren't being bombarded with blood suckers. He helped her up and she gave him his jacket back, but he refused it.

"You need it more than I do," Michael said. Selene tried to argue on this matter of whether she really needed the jacket over her leather outfit, but couldn't because Charli was scooting them through the tight bridge.

Selene looked at the dark spot. She realized with suppressed surprise that it was the same place she had first seen Michael, though she did not know it was him. Charli looked at her two companions. "OK kiddos it's safer to jump off the tall building one by one, but we do live in a world where there are vampyres after us, so let's get a move on." She pushed lightly to Selene who looked at her with curiosity. Charli looked back into the brown orbs, and then it dawned on her. "Oh, right! I'm Charli, AKA Lucian's daughter. You're Selene and you're a vampire. Ok, are we ready?"

Selene took another moment to take acknowledgment of this new girl. She turned around and without hesitation she walked over the side. However, Michael looked down in hesitation. His black shirt was already drenched from the rain that fell from the Budapest night.

"C'mon big boy." Charli said in amusement. She took another step forward and pushed Michael off the edge. She laughed quietly and jumped herself.

A/N: Yeah I haven't had Michael's sisters in here for a while. I completely forgot about them. Well here they are. And one of them may not be here much longer...

Editor: YOU WEREN'T SUPPOSED TO TELL THEM!

Writer: So what?! You see it all the time. You tell the audience someone will die so more people will read the story.

Editor: You still should not be allowed to do that.

Writer: Especially if you go on and kill Wesley and then just end an almost 30 year project with 'ok let's go battle...'

Editor: Yeah. I feel you... but don't vent about Angel to these poor people who are reading this for absolutely no reason.

-Thanks to my editor and muse who is still pestering me to write this... I love you! Moose