CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX: New Allegiances
LycansMomentarily fed up with men, Alex stalked out of the bathroom, with Michael close on her heels. Alex noticed Selene was finishing up the last bag of blood as she walked into the bedroom.
"What's wrong?" Selene asked, wiping the last vestiges of blood from around her mouth.
"Oh, nothing. Alex is just having a hard time excepting the fact that I am usually right", Michael said smugly.
"Men!" Alex murmured. "Can't live with 'em, can't legally kill them."
Just then gunshots could be heard firing through the tunnels.
"What the hell is that?" Michael asked bewildered.
"Trouble", Selene answered.
Not wasting anytime, Alex threw on Lucian's shirt; somehow managing to do up a couple of buttons. Then she ran over to her bag and began rummaging through it.
"What are you doing?" Selene asked.
"Getting a little security", Alex told her pulling out the small revolver and knife she had hidden amongst her things. "Do either of you know where the other bag Lucian brought in with us might be?" she questioned them she darted for the door.
Neither of them had a clue where Lucian had put it. Oh well, she would have to make due with what she had. She ran out of the room and down the hall, following the sounds of gunfire.
Michael and Selene ran behind her, both of them wishing they had weapons of their own. "What are we supposed to do", Michael asked Selene as they drew closer to the skirmish.
"I guess we'll find out when we get there", Selene said uncertainly.
Then suddenly, Alex had a better idea of what they were dealing with. She could smell humans, which could only mean one thing. Her boys had come calling. What the hell! She still had one more day before she was supposed to meet up with Daniel. Why had they busted in like this. Scared for them as well as for Lucian, she picked up her speed as they neared the lair entrance.
Alex burst into the room, immediately noticing lycans, some in wolf form, scrambling for cover on one side of the room. While on the other side of the room, five human males were firing their weapons at the shapeshifters, trying to protect themselves. Lucian was one of the few lycans with a weapon of his own, and he was standing right in the middle of the room, trying to defend his clan. Running through the scenarios, she figured her best hope for saving all of them was to try and negotiate with both sides.
As she hurried into the room, she caught sight of Raze and saw he had a gun in both hands, figuring she needed two weapons more than he did, she grabbed the closest one to her as she sprinted past him. She caught him by surprise, which she knew was the only way he would relinquish the gun.
Now feeling a little better about her chances, Alex came to a stop directly between the humans and the lycans. As shots fired all around her, Alex took her position and lifted both arms, one gun pointed at Malcolm's head, the other at Lucian's.
Lucian spotted Alexandra and panicked.
"Lycans, stand down", he commanded.
At the same time, Malcolm ordered, "Cease fire, Cease fire!"
Finally, all gunfire came to a halt. Alex stood absolutely still, weapons still trained on both the lycan leader and human leader.
"Alexandra, what are you doing", Lucian asked impatiently.
"I'm saving your ass, old guy", she retorted. "Don't worry, you can thank me later."
"Alex, why don't you put the gun down", Aaron recommended.
"Now Aaron, you know I can't do that", Alex stated sweetly. "But I'll tell you what, maybe you can answer a question for me, then I'll consider it", she suggested.
"Fire away, luv", Malcolm quipped.
Lucian took offense to the Australian's comment; he snarled showing his fangs.
"Behave Lucian", Alex warned without even looking at him.
Out of the corner of her eye, she saw a lycan moving closer, heading towards Jorge. She saw the human agent bring up his gun.
"Uh uh, Jorge. Put that away", Alex cautioned, then threw a warning over her shoulder, "Lucian, I suggest you keep your lycans in line."
"No one is to make a move, until I say otherwise. Is that understood?" Lucian ordered.
Alex could hear grumbling, but obviously the shapeshifters agreed, because Lucian didn't have to say anything else. Her problem now seemed to lie with the humans. Jorge was still holding his weapon at the ready. With a room full of angry lycans, this wasn't a good idea.
"Jorge, I ..said…put…the… gun…down", Alex said speaking slowly.
Jorge looked at Alex then looked over to Malcolm, undecided as to what to do. He was nervous and his hand began to shake. Alex knew this was a bad sign.
"Malcolm, control your man", she cautioned.
"Do you expect me to believe you would actually…..", Malcolm began when Alex suddenly cut him off.
"Jorge, do you consider me a good shot?" Alex asked her former team member quietly.
"Yyyes", Jorge responded nervously.
"How often do I miss", she asked him, calm, keeping her weapons trained.
"Never", he replied, looking as if he was ready to jump out of his skin.
"That's right, I never missed; and that was when I was human", she gently reminded him. "I'm fucking Wonder Woman now, Jorge. Just imagine the amount of damage I could inflict, before any of you were able to bring me down."
She watched as the Hispanic man visibly blanched and turned a very pale shade of white. She didn't want to threaten them, but she had to get Jorge to put the gun down before he did something that would be impossible to fix.
Malcolm had watched Alex as she oh so calmly told Jorge she would kill them if he didn't do as she asked. He wasn't so sure Alex would actually act on that threat, but he was sure that he didn't want to take that chance. She was a damn scary sheila when she had been mortal; now, he knew they would be hard pressed to take her down without suffering major casualties.
"She's right Jorge", Malcolm told his team member, "Listen to Alex and put the gun down."
"What if one of those werewolves attack us", Jorge asked clearly scared.
"You have my word, that no lycans will make a move unless I tell them otherwise", Lucian said, trying to assure the humans.
Alex looked over to Lucian briefly, and mouthed thank you to him before turning her attention back to her human friends. She saw Jorge slowly lowering his weapon, until it rested securely in its holder.
"Now, let's see if we can all play together nicely", she stated as a small warning to both sides.
"Aaron, why are you here?" she asked her onetime mentor.
"We are aware of your meeting with Daniel, and we had every intention of waiting until tomorrow to speak with you. But, current circumstances dictated we move this meeting up ahead of schedule", Aaron replied. He had moved closer to Alex, never taking his eyes off the gun she still had pointed at Malcolm's head.
"What meeting is he speaking of Alexandra?" was Lucian's immediate response.
Glancing over at Lucian, Alex gave him a look before answering, "A girl has to keep some things secret."
He snorted, which he decided was something he must have picked up from her, but otherwise made no comment. He would question her later about this meeting.
"So, what are these current circumstances that prompted this surprise visit" Alex questioned Aaron.
Sighing, he spoke. "Can you please put those weapons down; I would like to have a normal, sane conversation with you" he pleaded with her.
She let lose a short, harsh laugh. "Thing's in my life haven't exactly been "sane and normal" these last few days, old friend", she told him.
"Yes well, I'm sorry about that Alex. I truly am. But we have a somewhat dire situation that we have come to warn you about. And believe me, it will affect you and the lycans far more than it will us", Aaron explained to her.
Alex was hesitant about dropping her guard. If she stood on the ready, she could protect both the humans from the lycans and the lycans from the humans. And she knew she was the only thing standing between these two warring factions.
She looked at Malcolm then at Lucian. "If I put down these weapons, do you both promise to keep your men at bay; at least until we've decided if there's actually something to fight over?" she asked them.
Lucian, never hesitating, nodded his head yes; Malcolm did the same.
"Okay, but I'm keeping both guns with me. If anyone, and I do mean anyone, so much as even breathes hard at the other side, I promise I will shoot whomever it is; human and lycan alike", she told them dropping her arms until the weapons were resting at her side.
"Now, can you be a little more specific about what's going on?" she said turning back to Aaron and Malcolm. She noticed Lucian had moved to her side, and Michael and Selene had made their way over to them. But, the lycans kept their word and stayed right where they were.
"Without going into too much detail, we have been watching Sir William closely since you and Daniel spoke two days ago", Aaron informed her. "In fact, he's been spending quite a bit of time down here. Earlier today, he managed to catch a glimpse of a lycan moving through the tunnels and followed it. Sterling and Jorge were tailing him, and verified that he found the entrance, and then left. Jorge was sent to let us know what was going on. Sterling stayed behind to watch out for Sir William. Well, he returned, with a vampire. Sterling saw William show the entrance to the vampire, and he heard them talking. They are on their way back here now, with reinforcements. They plan on attacking the lycans and killing everyone in here. The vampire seemed most interested in someone named Michael and Selene; Sir William is after you", Aaron warned them as he finished sharing his information.
"How do we know we can trust the humans?" Raze stated moving forward, "They could be working with the vamps."
Alex threw the lycan a nasty look over her shoulder. Then she turned to Lucian. "They have no reason to lie. When Daniel found me in the tunnels, he agreed to give me three days in order to find out who was supplying the lycans with ultraviolet ammunition. He could have killed me there in the tunnels; he didn't. They risked their lives coming up here to warn us", she paused a moment. "I believe them."
Lucian looked down at Alexandra's upturned face. She was looking him squarely in the eye; daring him to contradict her. He walked over to Aaron, "Why would the Council warn the lycans?" he asked the elder gentleman.
"We are here to warn Alex", the council member said answering his question. "She may be a lycan now, but she will always be important to me and the men on this team."
Alex jerked her head up in surprise; she hadn't expected such loyalty.
Malcolm had seen her reaction, and noticed the haunted look on her beautiful face. He wanted to take away her pain.
"Yeah, and if I had known she would be greeting us in such an attractive outfit, I would have come sooner", he said joking around with her.
Alex looked down, just now remembering she was only wearing her underwear and Lucian's shirt, which wasn't even buttoned all the way. Embarrassed, she began doing up the remaining buttons.
Lucian had glanced over at Alexandra when the Australian mentioned her lack of clothing. He had to admit, she had been breathtaking when she came flying into the room, flashing bits of skin here and there. It had made him smile to see her in his shirt. But, he didn't like the fact that the human was so familiar with his Princess.
He jumped into the blonde man's face, bearing fangs. "Be careful of what you say, human", he warned the man.
"Back off Lucian", Alex said hotly.
Malcolm jeered at the man snarling at him.
"Malcolm, keep your comments to yourself", Alex warned sharply.
Lucian's snarl slipped into a sneer of his own before he turned his back to the man Alexandra had called Malcolm.
Alex turned back to Aaron who had a shocked look on his face.
"That is Lucian", Aaron said, making a statement really, more than asking a question.
"Yeah, it is", Alex answered.
"THE Lucian", Aaron repeated.
"The one and only", Lucian answered with his patented lopsided grin.
"We thought you were dead", Aaron stated bluntly.
"That was a misconception I did nothing to correct", Lucian politely explained.
"And I take it he's responsible for you recent departure from all things…human", Aaron asked Alex.
"Yeah, but how did you know?" Alex questioned the council member.
"He seems to be fairly territorial where you're concerned", Aaron observed.
"He suffers from a superiority complex; he thinks everyone is his property", Alex said flippantly.
"Now Alexandra, that's just not true", Lucian noted, "But right now we have more pressing matters to attend to. Sir, you are telling me, the vampires are on their way here, now?" he asked turning back to Aaron.
"Actually, there should be a team of about nine vampires and one inept council member showing up here in about 10 minutes, give or take", the response was given in a deep, rumbling bass.
Alex pivoted, looking over at the man who had answered the question. Sterling Jackson walked over to her and without a word, picked her up off the floor, in a huge bear hug. Alex was so surprised it took her a moment to react. The moment she caught her snap, she wrapped her arms around the big man's neck and hugged him for all she was worth.
"Look here little girl", he whispered in her ear, "I don't care what they say; you're just fine the way you are. And no one's gonna hurt you as long as I'm around", he promised her.
"Thank you", she whispered, too moved to say anything else.
He gently put her back down, and glared over at Lucian. "There'd better not be one scratch on her, or else you'll have to answer to me", he growled at the lycans leader.
Lucian grimaced and opened his mouth to speak, but Michael beat him to the punch.
"You don't have to worry about that", Michael said reaching his hand out to shake the bigger man's hand. "I'm Michael Corvin, and I just so happen to be a doctor. I have to say, Alex is about as healthy as a person can be."
Sterling shook his hand and grunted in response to Michael's statement. Then he muttered, "She better be", under his breath as he walked to stand next to Daniel and Jorge.
Lucian looked from Alex to Michael and then over at Selene, just now realizing that Alexandra was wearing clothing and moving around easily. Perplexed, he raised an eyebrow in question. Selene nodded her head in agreement with Michael's proclamation. He was going to have to take their word that Alex was okay.
"Why just a party of ten?" Lucian asked. Why not every vampire and death dealer left? They would have to know we have suffered a great loss after the massacre they had masterminded in the tunnels. So, why not attack in force while we're down?" he asked confused.
"The vampire with Sir William said something about not wanting this to blow up in his face, and that he still had a few men loyal to him", Sterling responded.
"Kraven", Lucian and Selene said simultaneously.
"Tall, black hair hanging to his neck, kind of a pretty boy, oh and condescending", Sterling said, describing the vampire he had seen.
"That would be our boy", Lucian said with a sneer.
"Well, whoever he is, he'll be here soon", Daniel said, speaking up for the first time. "Oh, and uh Alex, you might want to go put on some more clothes", he suggested.
Alex looked down again at her state of undress, and knew Daniel was right.
"Fine, I'll go throw some pants on", she retorted. "But before I leave, when need to got something straight. The vampires are headed this way, so we know there's gonna be a fight of some kind. My question to you, is which side are you going to fight on?" she asked the council agents.
"Do you really have to ask that?" Malcolm wanted to know.
"I know what your answer will be", Alex told them, "But, I believe a verbal response is necessary in order to assure our lycan friends who's got their back in this fight.
"Ah….I understand", Aaron stated. He turned to his team and they briefly discussed their answer before he turned back around. "We have voted and the decision is unanimous; we will gladly fight with the lycans. Sir William has overstepped his bounds, and I believe the council will agree with me on this, he is no longer welcome in our fold."
"Excellent", Alex said. "I'm going to change into something more battle-like and I'll be right back", she told them.
"Alexandra", Lucian called out, "Please try to hurry. I believe we will be having guests very soon."
"Don't worry old guy, I'll be back in a flash", she guaranteed him. "Oh, and try to have me a weapon worthy of a former council agent", she flippantly advised. Then she turned back and headed to his room. Listening to Lucian chuckle as she made her way out.