Blood

Author's Note: See chapter one for disclaimers.

When we arrived back at the mansion, it was about one o'clock in the morning. The parlor was still a buzz with mindlessly droll vampire conversation. We mounted our guns back onto the wall racks, Kahn then came up beside me, grinning.

"I heard you made your first kill tonight. Congratulations." He said.

"Yes, thank-you." I responded, trying not to act as proud as I was feeling.

"Well, you'll be doing more hand to hand training with Adriana tonight. She volunteered to help you. I have to go meet with Viktor and the council, I'll see you tomorrow night." He said, leaving the room. Adriana, who was standing beside me, led me into the center room.

"Alright, tonight we'll be following up your hand to hand combat. Kahn already told me you acted like a scared little girl with your kicks and punches." She said, almost laughing.

"I do not act scared with my- "Her fist headed towards me face, I fell over onto my side to dodge it barely. "What in the world was that for?"

"Hit me Selene." She tried to punch me again, I rolled up, missed the punch and tried to hit her in the face. Blocked by one of her hands unexpectedly. Suddenly she ducked down and kicked me at my ankles, causing me to fall to the ground and land on my face. My nose was now bleeding and I was mad.

I pounced on her and pinned her to the ground, taking a swing at her face, which was not successful, since she rolled me over and pinned me there. I kicked Adriana off of me and got to my feet. I don't know why but I felt so electrified trying to take her out. She attempted to hit me in the face and I blocked her and swung at her head with my other hand which also was blocked. She then took me and flipped me over her head and onto the ground. Alright, I was now bruised all over. In pain I decided to not get up. Maybe she'd stop if I just laid here.

"Ah!" I gasped as she kicked my side, I got up and tried to hit her face with my foot.

"Don't quit now, Selene! I'm being serious this time. Take-me-out" She said firmly, letting go of my leg and jumping backwards, I didn't see her coming behind me and grabbing me by the neck. I was gasping for air as I tried to flip her over my head. It took a few seconds for me to do so and I was out of breath and backed up against a wall for support. She soon got up and hit me in the face, slamming my jaw and causing my sharp teeth to collide with my lips. I then tacked her to the ground, she was obviously as out of breath as I was and I hit her in the face, hard. I wanted her to just stop. This wasn't necessary....she, she was my friend. Not a lycan.

"Good job, Selene. You win this time. Now get off of me." I let her go and sat on the ground beside her. She got up too, her mouth was leaking blood from when she opened it to talk. Lifting her hand to her mouth she inspected the blood on her hands and licked it off of her lips, and wiped it off of her chin. "Selene...your nose and mouth are bleeding quite profusely." She said, and I lifted a hand to my face, she was right. I could taste the stimulating taste of my own blood, so cold and delicious as it dripped into my mouth from my split lips.

"Oh, right." I tried to say, attempting to snap myself out of a borderline trance from the taste of my blood. She helped me up and led me into a wash room at the end of the corridor. I saw my face, what a sight! My nose was clearly swollen and bruised, my lips were clearly gashed open and my cheek where I was hit was black and blue. As for Adriana, her lips too were slashed open by her fangs and the area where I hit her right below her eye was very puffy at the moment.

I wiped off my face with a cloth, as did she, and we went into the back area of the mansion into what seemed to be an informal dining room at one time. A servant brought us a pitcher of blood along with two glasses and poured the thick red blood into each one and then left the room.

"To your future as a skilled death dealer" Said Adriana, lifting her glass, smiling, in almost a mock toast.

"And to furthering your skills too", I said, smiling for once, and started to drink the liquid in my glass. When I went back to check my lip, it was already healed, no scab, just perfect like before the training.

"Selene, there is something I must tell you, it is of great importance." Said Adriana, setting down her glass and staring at me seriously. I set down mine.

"Please continue", I said, wondering what the matter was.

"Selene, has Kraven been approaching you intimately lately?" She asked.

"Yes, he has! How did you know?" I asked, extremely curiously.

"Because, Viktor has been-.." She didn't finish her sentence, suddenly Kraven had come up behind her, grabbing her by the neck and overpowering her and dragging her back into a room with him. "She has a right to know you bastard!" Kraven smacked her in the face, I ran after her but the large oak doors slammed in my face, I pounded against them but they wouldn't open.

"Let her out! Kraven!" I screamed, my fists banging on the doors. I ran as quick as I could back to the death dealer training area to find Kahn. He was sitting at his desk.

"Kahn! Kraven dragged away Adriana against her will!" I said to him.

"He's of a higher authority Selene, it's out of our hands. We make a wrong move and he could disband us. It's probably nothing, stay out of it." He said, looking back down at some paperwork he had obviously received from the council.

"I thought you were going to be with the council all night!" I said accusingly.

"Things ended early, go to bed Selene. You look worn-out." He went back to his paper work.

"Screw that!" I said, grabbing an axe off the wall, running back through the parlor being stared at, and back to the door which I started to hack at. I heard a scream and only kept continuing to chop away. I finally broke what I believe was the lock and kicked the door open.

Oh...my...God...