Part
4: Bounty
Warmth again... I looked up at the ceiling, he
was next to me, his head face down in the pink satin pillows,
sprawled out upon the sheets, and still fully clothed. One of his
arms was draped about my chest, holding my wrist. I moved my arm away
from him.
"Wake up." I said, trying to be not too loud.
"Mmm, Samantha?" He said, burrying his face further into the pillow, almost cuddling it. Samantha?
"It's night time, get up." I told him, firmly, getting up now.
"No, we a have a little longer, c'mon, just another five minutes." He said, half asleep. I walked over and pulled the pillow out from underneath his head, his face coming in contact with the matress and sheets.
"It's me, idiot, now get up before we're late." I told him, getting my shirt off of the top of the dresser in the room, and pulling a comb through my hair.
"Huh? Oh, sorry Samantha." He said, not out of bed yet. I went over and grabbed him by the shoulder.
"Get up now, I'm Selene, it's 2003, you are in Hong Kong, you are not human, and there is no 'Samantha' here." I told him, his eyes opened, sadly, like he was dissapointed.
"Sorry, Sa-Selene." He said, getting up and pulling his fingers through his messy blonde locks.
"Who is she anyways? This Samantha person." I asked, pulling on a brown suade jacket I bought earlier in the duty free shop.
"Samantha is the name of my former fiance." He said, with a slight sigh. "What is it with you and being so bi-"
"Buisness-like is what you were going to say. Now let's go before it starts raining again." I told him, pulling a shoulder holster on to hold two fully loaded berettas and two extra clips. He followed me out of the room, his head hanging low. We made our way to the downstairs, to find it once again raining. The lights of the streets were obscured by it, the warm day that was before made the streets rise with steam. I signalled down a taxi quickly. Getting into the backseat of the car along with him.
"West and 34th please." I told the driver, as he nodded in response and took off. People in the streets were running about, the neon lights of shops lit up in the area, side cafes now deserted from the rain, small children running about with their mothers in raincoats.
"Ah, here, ma'am. This your stop." The driver said, a twelve dollar fare on the meter, I handed it to him and got out of the car with Him. We rushed to the gates of the large stone mansion on the outskirts of the island of Hong Kong.
"It's Selene", I said into the intercom, facing the camera.
"Who's he?" Responded the male on the line.
"My husband, now open up, Edward needs to see me." I said, as the gates opened and myself and him rushed inside. The doors were opened swiftly before us by two butlers, into a foyer that was not exactly the Ordoghaz. The walls were tacky, bright crimson with paper lanterns dangling from the ceiling, oriental rugs on the ground and pieces of silk upholstered furniture within the room. The warm glow was cast upon the alabaster faces of it's inhabitants, most of which were dressed in formal suits and cocktail wear, red and yellow and blue, brighter colors the of the Ordoghaz. They stared at me. A servant approached me.
"Edward requests your presence now, he said to leave your 'boy toy' in here." The man sneered at Him, He just leaned against a pillar.
"Tell him her boy toy doesn't like being treated like a dog." He said, sulking, I shot him a 'stop acting so childish' look as I was led into Edwards library. He sat at the desk, not a day older then when I saw him. A warm smile upon his face, his sunshine blonde hair cut stylishly and messy just above his jawline, dressed in a dark crimson blazer on top of a black shirt and pants. Not excessive in his jewlery such as Kraven was, just a gold chain with a cross upon his neck and a single gold ring on his right hand, bearing yet another cross, I knew he had always taken his French Catholic raising seriously.
"What a pleasent suprise, my dear Selene. What has it been? 100? 150 years since I last saw you in my presence?" He asked, coming over and hugging me like the old friends we were. "Sit down, sit down, now I heard everything." He said, as I took a seat next to him.
"Everything? How is the coven back in Hungary? Are they already sharpening their pitchforks and sickles to come after us?" I asked, both curious and slightly amused.
"No no, quite the opposite." He said, smiling.
"Explain." I was curious, why would the covens not want me dead?
"You see, they want the humans to catch you. Make you an example, Marcus has handed you over to them on a silver platter. Letting them hunt you down."
"What?!"
"Marcus wishes to give an example of how we must stop this rucus about in the human world so much, and so he has decided to make you and your dirty blooded pet an example."
"How would that solve anything?" I asked, leaning back in my chair.
"It will show them what happens to those who venture out of their realm, the realm of this underworld, into one which they do not belong."
"And as for the lycans?"
"Them? Those dirty blooded scum are still being hunted with as many death dealers as we can find, same mission, same mission." He said, his hand gestures showing how little he cared about that threat.
"Are you going to help us though?"
"Me? Of course my dear, Marcus specificly told us to give you whatever arms you request, although you are alotted no ultraviolet bullets however. Although, there is a compramise."
"What compramise?"
"We let you die in front of the humans, bleed to death like a mortal, and your pet survives. Or we can kill your pet, and let you live. Or just let you become the mortals' game and have them kill you themselves. Your choice really." He leaned back in his chair. "Selene, lovely, I want to help you. But I am a point of authority, one of few left, and times they...they have been so hard on us lately. I am sick of seeing lives waisted, this coven depends on old bloods like me. My prayers go out to you that you may survive his wrath in one piece." He said, getting up as I did.
"Any good ammo though?"
"Ohhh, yes. Many crates of silver nitrate from the South Americas, refined in Europe. And we have regular ammuntion also. Take what you need from our armory and then leave please, Marcus does not exactly need to know you spoke with me dircectly." He said.
"And as for Kraven?" I asked, wondering where that scum of the earth went.
"Him? Marcus agreed to put out a bounty for his name too, death dealers have gone free lance to find him, bring him back alive and writhing or with his head on a silver platter." Edward laughed, as did I.
"Do you think I'll see you again?" I asked, he was one of the few people I could have ever called "friends". He was with me since the beginning, since the start of this, since my family was slaughtered.
"I'll put that faith in God, I pray for you Selene. Do not let yourself be brought down." He said, as a tall, heavy death dealer came over and showed me to a set of doors toward the end of the hall. Her boots clinked, as did mine, on the cherry wood floors, death dealers both new and the occaisional one I remembered, glared at me with disgust. Locking and clicking their guns suggestively in my direction.
The room was filled with ammunition boxes, armor, bullet proof vests and guns, plenty of them. I grabbed an AK47, four uzis, four berettas, a vest that secured as a halter under neath my clothing (stashing this all into a backpack found in the room), a shoulder holster, and one for my legs, and four boxes of silver nitrate ammunition and two regular. Considering him, and his misuse of guns and inexperience, I got him four .22 laser sight hand guns, one semi-automatic assault rifle, and two automatic assualt rifles along with a set of larger holsters. I quickly left the room to hand this to him outside with the response of "preparing to stock an army?", and then retrieving a coat and suit in both my size and figuring that he would need little more then a coat to cover his weapondry.
"Let's go..." I said, coming out of the room, walking past him.
"No, Selene. Actually, do me the favor and stay the night, will you?" Edward asked, a smile upon his face.
"But I already have reservations at a hotel and-"
"Not another word", he said, smiling, "I will hear no more of it. Go upstairs, there is an open room for you at the end of the hall."
"But Lord Edward!" Spoke up a tall asian woman, her hair hanging down to her waist, she was dressed in a flowing royal blue gown. "That is my room! You, you cannot give it to that traitorous whore to have!"
"I can and I will give it to Lady Selene, you may have the privledge of spending the night in the servants quarters if I hear another disrespecting word from your tainted mouth." Edward snapped in her direction, she quickly calmed down and sat back down again.
"And what about him?" I asked, gesturing towards Micheal who struggled to carry the guns I had, I hoped to help him holster some of them later on.
"Oh that fellow? Shall he sleep at the foot of your bed or on a cushion?" Edward laughed, "You cannot seriously think I would give him a bed here."
"I do, he saved my life on more then one occaision-"
"A pet obeying his master, so lost without his mistress he would be."
"I am no one's pet." Micheal said, his voice deepened and harsh. "She dragged me with her, has been emotionally and physically abusing me the entire way along. You think any animal would stay with her? No, they wouldn't." He said, setting the bag down.
"Ah, but why are you here then at all?" Edward asked, curiousity in his tone.
"I don't know, I don't care. I was taken away from my life as a doctor, brought into this underworld hell by her and the lycans, you all want me dead, what the hell do you expect from me?" He asked, walking towards the door. I picked up the bag and walked after him.
"Selene", Edward called from behind, I turned around for a moment as he shoved servants out of the way to go down the stairs, "You were always in my heart, on my mind, I wanted to let you know." A smile of sympathy graced his features.
"I always have, thank you friend." I said, and left, walking all the way back home with Him. A block later I finally spoke.
"Could you at least be a gentleman and take some of this?" I asked, handing him the holsters.
"Fine", he took them from me and we continued in silence. The hotel was full by the time we got back, the downstairs resturaunt was crowded with guests as we made our way up stairs. Opening the door I set the back down in the luggage area of an alcove of the room, near the bedroom.
"I'm using the shower first", he said, taking off his shirt, He has a great build for someone who has spent the last few years trapped within hospital walls...What am I thinking? Get this out of your head Selene, you're turning into an old fool. The hot water began to run as the steam poured out of the cracks of the door. I sat down on the couch and turned on the international news channel.
"And tonight, suspected serial killer "Selene Corvin" and "Micheal Corvin", the very Bonnie and Clyde of assasinations, have apparently fled their homeland of Hungary and America and have made their way into costal China." Great I thought sarcastically. I locked and bolted the door as I took off my boots, shirt, and jeans tonight, since they were covered in mud. I locked the door and closed the blinds. Another unsettling sleep awaiting me.
She was
right...Adriana was trying to tell you something all those years ago,
Kraven that bastard, I can never forgive him, Kraven who revealed the
truth also hid it for all those years. Kraven who tried so many times
to want me for himself....
Don't go to sleep angry, don't
think of that Selene.
