Disclaimer: See previous chapters

Chap. XXIV

It has been too long…

The Change came to him in full force. After years of suppressing his bestial side for centuries, it had now come out with a vengeance. His muscles bulged and tore his clothes apart, revealing dark, silvery fur. His mouth and nose stretched out together and sharp canine fang grew from it. His hands twisted and claw sprouted from his fingers. Now complete, Ethan seemed to crouch low in rest, but in truth, he was tracking down Kraven. Smell, feel, taste…It all came back to him. The vampire's wound was like a beacon for him and Ethan had no intention of letting him escape. The time had come. Kraven was finally his prey. With a snarl, Ethan rushed in the tunnel after him

Let the hunt begin…

The Death Dealers continued to fire in on the two hiding hybrids, inching in closer. Marcus growled inwardly. It was ironic really that a warrior group that was trained to hunt down lycans was now gunning him, a vampire Elder, down. But he was no longer vampire, at least fully. And both Kraven and Octavia have deceived them. He will deal with them in due time, but for now he had to get back his people.

"Stop this. Kraven and Octavia have tricked you for their own ends. Listen to me."

"Don't listen to him." Lucas ordered the troops. "He's lied to us before. We can't fall for their trickery again."

Marcus moved to step out and confront the vampire, but another round of bullets stopped him short. He growled again, upset that he was trapped here. But even as both elder and hybrid, he doubted he was fast enough to avoid a thousand bullets coming at him at all sides. He looked over at Michael, who seemed to be breathing raggedly. Blood was in various parts of his body, though he couldn't see them all. Even if the silver didn't kill him, the wounds might. He didn't know how long it would take for hybrid to heal, but he hoped it was quick. Back to the advancing force, he called out again.

"I am your Elder! I command you to stop."

The men leveled their weapons to shoot again. Lucas was about to order them to fire when he noticed one of the Death Dealers with a lower gun and head. It was Victor.

"Victor, what are you doing?" Lucas questioned.

"I…I…" He took a deep breath, "I don't think I can do this."

Lucas's eyes widened and flashed vampiric blue, "What?!"

The young Death Dealer shook his head mildly, "I…Everything that has happened, everything that is happening…It doesn't seem right." He firmly added, "This doesn't seem right."

Lucas brushed past the group and stood up to him face to face, "Are you telling me…that you are siding with them?"

Near panic hit the vampire's eyes, but he shakily held his ground, "I don't know. But…I do know…he is our Elder. The last. Can we truly do this?"

This stunned Lucas, which was soon followed by slowly rising anger. But that anger flared hotter when he saw a few of the other Death Dealer lower their weapons and murmur amongst themselves. The Death Dealer couldn't believe this. 'How could they be so foolish? He is not our Elder!' He looked over to the ones that were still loyal to him and waved his hand. At the signal, those Death Dealers turned on the few that questioned Lucas and leveled their guns on him. Victor was shocked by this, but not as much so as when Lucas raised his gun on him. His own teacher!

"Lucas?"

Lucas frowned, "If you're not on our side, then you're against us." He motioned his head, "Hold them here while we finish this."

At this command, a few of the Death Dealers circled the rebels, still holding their guns on them. Victor was too shocked to believe what had happened and was promptly put in with the group. With that settled, Lucas returned his attention to the hybrids, only to find Marcus right in front of them. During the interruption, Marcus had slipped out and moved right before them without so much as a whisper of sound or a flicker of movement. The Death Dealers swiftly raised their guns to him, but he didn't move and kept his eyes trained on them. If he wanted to kill them, he would have done so two minutes ago and they would have been powerless to stop him. But that wasn't what he wanted.

"This must end. Here. Now."

'Not again!'

Kraven limped through the tunnels in order to escape the lycan that was soon to pursue. He knew it took a few minutes for the Change to come to the full, so he had to get as much distance between Ethan and himself. I should have killed him when I had the chance. He had let his overconfidence rule over him again. Last time, he was left with a mark on his leg. This time, it may be more. Much more. But it wasn't over yet. He still had his troops. If he could reach them, then that lycan would be history. He just had to reach them.

'I did not survive all these years just to die here in this hole by some lycan.'

He arrived at the exit and the main chamber where they had first found Ethan and Michael. He moved over to the tunnel where he had sent the others when a low growling caught his attention, which led to him falling on his injured leg. He growled again and looked up, but there was no one there. Wisps of air whipped around him, causing him to jerk his head to the tracks. Again nothing. Wind and sounds bristled around Kraven and the few lights that were there were cut off. Kraven arose angrily. 'He's toying with me! I'll show him.' His anger pushed away his pain and he made his way to tunnel. But he stopped short when he saw the massive object in the way. Kraven backed away in fear when he saw what it was. It was Ethan, in his lycan form. He looked no different from any other lycan except…for the silvery fur that glistened along with his dark fur. Silver?

'So he was… the silver demon!'

He thought it was a rumor, something thought up by the elder vampires that fought in the castle war so many years ago. While the vampires invaded and attacked the castle, there was a report of a silver lycan who tore his way into the castle, slaying dozens, perhaps hundreds of vampire warriors. He had been captured at the time, so he hadn't witnessed it himself. He had long thought that it was nothing more than old war stories made up by vampires to make them seem brave. He had done it himself. But it seemed that this story was no rumor.

Right now, he really wished it was…

The lycan stalked in close, snarling continuously as he inched close to his prey. His eyes were as primal as any animal, but Kraven could swear he saw something else in those eyes.

Pleasure…
"I said I would give you all the truth. So here it is."

Marcus's eyes continued to search through the warriors, working to gain their attention as he spoke.

"It is true that much of what happened has been because of deceptions and bigotry. Our race, which was once noble for a time, has fallen into despair. For those oldest of us who remember, the lycans were once our guardians. But…because of my own weakness, it turned into slavery for them. It grew to the point where one rebelled against them, Lucian, who was punished for having a vampire as a mate." A few gasps came from the some of the warriors, as he expected, but he continued to speak, "As a result, this vampire was punished and Lucian fought back. But I believe that Lucian never wanted to win. He wanted our races to come back together, as it should have been. That was why he sought out Michael and that is why he is a hybrid now. He was to bridge our two species together as both lycans and vampires."

"But…the Covenant…" one of them muttered.

"Yes." the Elder answered mildly. "Our law which defines us. However, it was never meant for us not to take a lycan as a mate. Viktor, who both feared and despised the lycans, added that law in. I could not stop him. But Viktor is dead, a product of his own hatred and deception. If we are to survive this, truly survive this, then we must…"

But he was cut off by a enraged Lucas, whose hands were trembling with anger and rage, "This…is…sacrilege!" He raised his gun, a rifle, up toward Marcus while his eyes flashed blue with fierce anger at what he had heard. "And we will have none of it!"

"If you truly believe that, then shoot me."

"My lord…!"

From behind Marcus, Erika ran out from her hiding place and moved beside him. In all honesty, she was surprised by this act. She didn't even think about it and by the time it all registered in her mind, she was standing beside the Elder hybrid.

"Erika, stay back."

But the blond vampiress ignored him and stood in front of him, protectively, "I'm not moving. You will have to go through me"

Lucas blinked at this. 'Another traitor!' He cocked the rifle and pointed, "I don't have a huge problem with that."

"No!"

The movement was a blur. Lucas's gun going off repeatedly, Erika standing with Marcus as they flew and suddenly, the two of them were tackled to the ground far off. Erika's head spun with dizziness by the sudden movement, but when her vision cleared, she was more surprised. Their savior was Michael, who was still bleeding from earlier, but many of his injuries healed. He had grabbed both Marcus and Erika and pulled them far off, hitting the ground just as hard unfortunately. Marcus glared at the hybrid youth.

"Why did you do that?"

Michael staggered up from the ground, "I couldn't let you die. We're…family, I guess."

Marcus gave him a shocked glance and it was strangely followed by a short laugh. More bullets caused him to stop and Marcus could see that Lucas had reorganized some out his men with him. The three of the stood up as the Death Dealers came in on them. There was nowhere to hide now and they where all wide open.

But had they not been so transfixed on the three, they would have noticed or at least sensed the dark figure that sailed over the sky and land smoothly behind them. Two of them turned, only to be slapped away by sharp talons and sent into the sky sideways. A third and fourth followed them promptly and by the time they turned around, they were shocked by what they saw. But no one was as surprised or as shocked as Michael.

"Selene…?"

The dark-haired woman stood before the remaining Death Dealer, breathing raggedly. But she was no longer the vampire everyone recognized her to be. Her skin was dark azure, her fangs glistened through her lips and she bore wicked-looking claws on each hand. And her eyes…black as midnight and dark as her hair, making her look almost like a banshee. Marcus looked at her in wonder and then back at the stunned Michael and put two and two together.

"So now I know. As does she."

Lucas looked over to her and then back at his previous prey. He was in a tight situation and he knew it. He was now in between Selene and the others. If they wanted to fight, then he would he crushed in the middle. But that fear was soon abated when the others that was with Kraven had stormed out of the tunnel to join him.

"So traitor, you finally show your true colors. It wasn't bad enough you betrayed us for a lycan. Now you had to be an abomination like them too."

Selene gave no response and took a step closer to him. She didn't care if she was shot and killed. No one was going to hurt Michael, not while she lived. Michael seemed to sense this from her and moved outward as well toward them. Marcus looked over at him and grabbed his arm.

"No, Michael. Don't…"

But Michael snatched his arm back. "She will not be harmed. The moment that happens is the moment they all die."

Marcus's eyes blackened, "Michael. Don't force my hand."

Michael didn't turn to the Elder, but he did stop. As long as they didn't attack Selene, he wouldn't do anything and vise versa for Selene. This was a tense moment for them all as it seemed to be at a standoff.

Kssshhssshhhhhssh!!!! Kssshhssshhhhhssh!!!! Kssshhssshhhhhssh!!!!

The crushing sounds came from all around from various tunnels. Everyone, excluding the hybrids, looked around in confusion until the sounds soon stopped, but those were followed by growling, snarling, and glowing eyes coming in from some of the tunnel entrances. The lycans had everyone surrounded, but their main focus was the vampire. All of them. Marcus looked around in worry. This had turned into a very explosive situation.

All that was left was the match…