"Eyes of the Undead"

By Nabira

Disclaimer: Still don't own it.

Thank you to my wonderful beta, Brigitta.
Also sorry that this took so long. I had some problems with an email from Brigitta not going through, but it's all good now.

Chapter 4

Into the Lion's Den

After Selena left, it was an hour before Erik could leave the room. He had never met a young woman so sure of herself and so in control of her surroundings. If he had not seen her and had just seen her personality, he would have thought that she was at least fifty years old. She had such… wisdom, that Erik could not believe she was the same age as Christine. And she had called him young man. At forty years old, he was certainly not a young man! That boy who had been chasing after Christine lately, now he could be called a young man. But Erik?

And what had she said? About how he was like her? She had said he was dangerous, but he could not imagine how a young lady like her could possibly be considered as dangerous.

There was something different about her, something that meant that even if you put her next to a million girls her age with the same beauty, it would still make her stand out. And what confused him was she seemed to see right through the mask as though she didn't even notice it at all. She looked him straight in the eyes, as an equal.

Erik sighed and decided to go to bed, even though he knew he wouldn't sleep. He was actually quite glad that Christine had gone to bed before Selena decided to make her presence known. He knew the girl would probably ask questions if she had been there, and thanks to Selena's puzzling nature, he wouldn't have been able to answer them.

ooo

When Christine left the underground lair the next morning to attend her rehearsals, she finally told Erik the news he already knew, that a girl named Selena was looking for him. With a curt nod, Erik answered Christine's unspoken question of did he know her and, when she looked at him, slightly shocked, he replied, "I'm not a total recluse, girl!"

Erik spent the morning composing until he was interrupted at about noon by the alarm going off. He knew that someone was on the banks of the lake and, picking up the Punjab lasso that had been so ineffective against Selena last night, he went outside to confront the intruder.

It was a boy. He looked quite nervous and was pacing on the other side of the lake. Erik had no intentions of hurting the child, but giving him a scare might be good for him.

Erik was about to frighten him when he saw the boy clutched an envelope in his hands. He was obviously a messenger who had been sent to deliver a letter to someone and gotten lost. Unless, of course, he was somehow trying to deliver a letter to Erik.

"Who's the letter for, child?" Erik asked, throwing his voice so that the boy thought it was coming from a rock by the lake.

The boy cautiously crept toward the rock and replied softly, "The lady said it was for a Monsieur Erik."

Erik was surprised. "What was the lady's name?" he made the rock ask.

"Lady Beauvais," the boy replied carefully.

"Leave it next to me," Erik said, still making it seem as though the rock was talking. "Then leave!"

The boy dropped the letter next to the rock and ran as fast as his legs could take him toward the tunnels that led back to Rue Scribe. When Erik could no longer hear his footsteps, he walked over to the rock and picked up the letter.

Erik, the letter read.

I hope you didn't scare poor Lucien too much, he's a good boy and I couldn't deliver this letter myself. However, I stick by what I said before – you are a lot like me. I would have scared him if I had the chance.

I do believe we need to have a chat. As I cannot leave the house until late this evening, I suggest you visit me. The address is 15 Rue Mignard in the 16th arrondissement. There will be a carriage waiting for you out in front of the Opera Populaire at 12:30.

I do expect you to come, Erik. This is important and I trust that you understand.

Yours,

Selena.

Erik sighed. So the young lady did have a last name. Looking at his pocket watch, he realised that he had fifteen minutes until he was expected to be in the carriage on his way to Selena's.

Grumbling to himself and seriously considering not doing what the girl had asked, he moved back into the house to change his clothes. Ten minutes later, he was out the front of the Opera and climbing into a carriage that the driver informed him Lady Selena Beauvais had sent.

Erik relaxed in the carriage and looked out the window, the city whirling past as they travelled to the prestigious area of the 16th arrondissement. He wasn't really surprised that that was the area where Selena lived – he could tell by the clothes she wore that she had money. And the boy and the driver had both called her 'Lady'. Perhaps she was of the old nobility and her family had survived the Revolution.

The house at number 15 Rue Mignard was beautiful and grand. It had a small front garden and its two stories opposed the rest of the houses in the street.

The driver of the carriage opened the door for Erik and, as he climbed out, said, "Lady Selena has asked me to tell you that the door is unlocked and you may go straight through." With a nod of his head, the driver climbed back into the carriage to move it.

Erik thought it was a little strange that Selena wanted him to come straight in, but, nevertheless, he let himself into the house and shut the door behind him.

The first thing he noticed was that there was no natural light inside the house. Heavy curtains kept all light from entering, and the closing of the door had also stopped the entry of the sun's rays.

"Erik, is that you?" a voice called from a room somewhere in the house.

"Yes," Erik replied, recognising Selena's voice.

"Have you shut the front door?" she asked.

"Yes," Erik said once again, slightly perplexed by the question.

"Good." A door not far down the hall opened and Selena emerged, dressed in a navy blue day dress, her hair unrestrained as usual and her blue eyes glowing in the darkness. She reached out a hand to Erik and said quietly, "I apologise for not being at the door to greet you."

Erik took her hand and nervously kissed her knuckles softly.

Selena smiled at his obvious apprehension. "Come," she said. "I will give you a tour of the house."

The house was large but homely. The downstairs consisted of a kitchen, an office, a dining room, a sitting room and a ballroom and the upstairs had the bedrooms, a few bathrooms and a library. Every room, except for the kitchen, looked like it was used on a regular basis and Erik found himself engrossed with the large collection of books that Selena had in her library.

How Selena managed to pry him away from the manuscripts that he was flipping through, Erik didn't know, but somehow she got him back downstairs and into the sitting room.

Erik sat in one of Selena's comfortable couches as she moved around the room illuminating it. "Why don't you just open the curtains, Selena?" he asked.

Selena flashed a devilish smile at Erik. "I'm about to tell you why," she replied.

Erik was starting to feel very impatient by the time Selena finally sat down on the opposite couch, though he knew that she was deliberately goading him. "So," she said, her eyes dancing with contained laughter, "Do you want me to start at the beginning or do you want me to tell you straight out?"

Erik glared at her. "I don't have time for games, girl," he replied stoically.

"You seem a little cranky, Erik," she replied, her blue eyes shining.

Erik clenched his fists, trying to keep himself from hurting the girl. But Selena was suddenly standing in front of him. He had not seen her move, though he had been watching her intensely.

Her warm breath caressed his cheek as she whispered into his ear.

"Erik… I'm a vampire."

ooo