Chapter Seven

Information

Disclaimer: Standard Disclaimer applies. (In other words I have no rights to SM or the SS in any way, shape, or form.) However this story line is mine.

Warning: Profane language, violence, sexual content and blood, gore, vampires, werewolves and all the good stuff. M-rated.

Double Warning: Bad writing involved

Throughout the day, Serena tried to avoid being in the same room with Darien. If she was in a room and he would walk in, she would get up and leave. She didn't know what the other girls thought about her awkward behavior, and to be honest she didn't care. She couldn't let herself fall into his arms again, if she did, she would agree to anything to be with him. They hadn't touched like they had in her bedroom, earlier that morning, for over two years.

She had forgotten what it had felt like to be kissed by him. To be held and told she was wanted by him. She had forgotten the scent of his skin, and the way he made her feel in his arms. She wanted to be with him, more than anything in the world, but being with him had a price tag that she didn't know if she could afford. And the thought of what she would have to be, to be with him, scared her. She didn't think she could handle it.

Someone called up to the palace from outside the gates at dusk. Serena, knowing it was the feeder, went to meet it. The man who greeted her was cute, around nineteen years old, and very carefully groomed. It looked as though he had wanted to make the best impression possible on his foray to the Palace of New Tokyo. He looked shiny and new, like he had taken a shower for over two hours to make sure he scrubbed every part of himself until he was rubbed raw. His light brown hair was slicked back and tied into a small ponytail at the nape of his neck. What surprised Serena the most about his appearance was that he wore a gray tuxedo. She had figured that the feeders would dress like the people at the club, in leather.

She smiled, walking up to him with her hand outstretched. "Hello, Mr.…?"

"Oh." He laughed shyly. "My name's Rick. Just call me Rick. It's a pleasure to meet you, your highness."

Serena felt her face grow hot as he took her hand and laid a soft kiss on the back of it. As soon as he touched her skin, the hair on the back of her neck and arms stood on end. Warm energy swarmed over her, tingling as if ants were crawling on her skin. "Please don't. My name is Serena. I'm a friend of Molly's and I hope you will treat me as such." She pulled her hand away and tried to stop herself from rubbing it against her jeans. "You aren't a vampire." She said staring at him. His gray eyes widened slightly and he nodded.

"Werewolf." Serena's skin went cold. She froze.

"Is this Nikolai's idea of a joke?" She asked, not bothering to keep the tone of anger from her voice.

Rick looked slightly abashed. "He told me to tell you that this is your first test. Whatever that means. I'm from the New Tokyo pack."

"You take orders from Nikolai?" Serena asked, frowning.

"Yeah, I'm his beast." Rick said. He glanced up at the sky. "Molly is going to wake up any minute."

Serena fought with herself for a moment then led him into the palace and down to the wine cellar. "Beast?" She couldn't help asking. Rick grinned.

"Yeah, his animals to call are wolves."

"What do you mean 'his animal to call'?" Serena asked, opening the door to Molly's room.

"Some vampires, well, Master vampires can call an animal. Nikolai's animal is a wolf. It's kinda like those old Native Americans, who had spirit guides that usually took the form of an animal." Rick glanced into the room. "You might want to stay out here." Serena started to open her mouth to contradict him, but he put a finger on her mouth. "Not now, I will explain in a few minutes." He stepped into the room and closed the door.

Serena sighed and leaned against the wall, listening for any movement inside the room. After a few minutes of nothing, Serena was about to open the door when there was movement, and a soft cry. Then something slammed against the door. Serena, worried about Molly, tried to push it open, but whatever had landed on the other side was still there, keeping the door closed. A slurping sound came through the door, and Serena knew Molly was feeding. Serena's stomach clenched, and she fought the urge to get sick. Instead, she turned and trotted up the stairs, out of the cellars.

Darien hurt. Not a physical pain, but he wished it was one. Serena had turned away from him. He wasn't sure, but he was beginning to think that he had lost her. And he wasn't sure why. He knew she loved him, her response earlier that day had told him as much. Her jealousy at the thought of him and Raye confirmed it. He just couldn't understand why she was fighting her own feelings.

He had felt his heart breaking when she had vanished two years earlier, but it was nothing compared to the pain he felt now. Serena loved him, he was sure of it. She was living at the palace, playing Princess, even if she wouldn't admit it, to the ambassadors whenever they had dinners, and he didn't think she was doing so just because she wanted to.

She had been avoiding him throughout the day, leaving the room when he came in, or if she saw him in the room, when entering herself, she would turn and leave without a word. The girls had even noticed and questioned him about it. But he didn't want them to know about what had happened that morning, so he dodged the questions. He did answer, as truthfully as he could, that he didn't understand himself why Serena was avoiding him.

Finally, after noon he had taken Renee to get ice creams then do some shopping for her. She had grown about three inches in the time she had gone to the future to try to get Neo-Queen Serenity to tell her what was happening, and she couldn't seem to bring anything but Luna P through the time gate. So, it was left to him to get her some clothing.

After they had bought enough clothes to fill the back of his little red sports car, they went to the local elementary school and enrolled her into the third grade class. When that was done, Darien let Renee talk him into a movie, which ended up being two. They didn't get back to the palace until well after dark.

Serena and Molly were sitting in the sitting room, gossiping happily when he and Renee entered the room. Renee greeted Molly excitedly, launching into the highly interesting and dramatic adventure of their day.

Darien's eyes sought out Serena, who was watching Renee with a slight smile on her face. She was sitting on one of the overstuffed chairs in the room, with one leg tucked underneath her, and the other dangling over the arm of the chair. Her jeans must have made that position uncomfortable but she didn't look like it bothered her. She wore a patterned turquoise shirt that was tucked into the waist of her jeans. As he watched her, he felt the pang of longing fill him, and very carefully moved to sit in the chair beside her, hoping that she wouldn't realize he was there and take off running from the room.

Serena turned to look at him as he sat down next to her. Her eyes slowly went dark and closed. The light that had been twinkling in them, before he had sat down, vanished. "I hope you guys had fun." She commented, her voice cool. Darien nodded.

"She has every piece of clothing the stores had to offer." He teased softly. Serena's eyes snapped, and she pursed her lips.

"I'm glad." She stated before turning back to Molly and Renee.

"Serena, please." Darien said, putting a hand on her forearm. She glared at it for a moment before raising her eyes to his. "What happened? What's wrong?"

"Nothing." She whispered, gently pulling her arm from his hand. She turned to Molly. "What happened to Rick?"

Molly's face turned faintly red. "He's um… recuperating." She replied.

"I was talking, Serena!" Renee glared at Serena. "You interrupted me!"

"You have been talking since the moment you came into the room." Serena pointed out.

"You have had Molly all to yourself since last night!" Renee snapped, "I can talk to her too!"

"You are such a brat, Renee! Go make friends your own age!" Serena told her.

"Well, I have. Hotaru is coming over in the next couple days to play." Renee replied excitedly to Serena.

Serena frowned. "When did you run into her?"

"Yesterday while you, Lita, Raye, and Darien were gone. Mina and Amy took me out for pizza and Hotaru was there with her father."

Darien sighed. They had been walking on eggshells with Renee about vampires. So far they had managed to keep the undead a secret. But Darien wondered how long it would be before she found out the truth. With Molly living in the palace he was sure it wouldn't take too long.

Darien glanced at the door to see a young man standing there, looking uncomfortable. But what made Darien cringe was the blood on the man's tux. Serena must have seen him too, because she jumped to her feet and ushered him from the room. Darien pushed himself off the chair and followed.

Serena was talking hurriedly to the man in the great hall, her voice hushed, and her hands waving to emphasize what she was saying. At first the young man looked confused then the light of comprehension swept across his face. He glanced down at the blood on his tuxedo and frowned.

Darien walked forward. "I can lend you a shirt and jacket." He said. Serena sent him an appreciative glance and nodded.

"Darien, Rick, Rick, Darien." She said hurriedly, glancing back at the door to the sitting room. "Sorry… Renee." She said bolting back into the room.

Darien stared after her, wondering why he wanted to be with her so much.

"I'm sorry, Prince Darien. This must seem pretty bad." Rick said, holding his hand out to Darien. They shook hands. "I'm Molly's feeder." He said as if that explained it all. Darien started to open his mouth to ask what a feeder was when Rick added, "a feeder is a person who donates blood to a vampire."

Darien nodded, "that makes sense. I hadn't even thought about what we would do if Molly got hungry. I doubted that she would like extremely raw hamburger."

Rick laughed, sheepishly. "I think she could survive on it, but I don't think she would like it too much." He commented. Then glancing back toward the door to the sitting room, he added. "I don't want your daughter to see this." He waved his hand over his front. Darien grinned.

"I think my clothes are about the right size." He said leading the way up to the second floor and to his room.

Serena was beginning to wonder how to get Renee to go to bed when she fell asleep sitting next to Molly. Mina came into the room looking for her, after passing Darien and Rick in the hall, and carried her from the room. Shortly after that Amy, Raye, Lita, Darien and Rick appeared, and Mina reappeared.

Rick took the chair next to Serena, to her great relief, unconsciously stopping Darien from taking it. The girls began to ask Molly questions as Serena turned to Rick. "You said you would tell me why I couldn't go with you when Molly woke up." She reminded him.

"Oh, yeah. I had forgotten about it." He said, turning his attention to Serena. "Well, vampires, the young ones, have a tendency to wake up and not really know who they are feeding from. They can end up being cannibalistic if precautions aren't made. Basically, if you and I had walked into the room and she woke up, she could have attacked either of us. I was told not to risk you if she woke up."

"So, when she woke up, all she felt was the need to feed?" Serena asked, feeling like she should have figured that one out on her own.

Rick nodded, smiling. "Yeah."

"What about the other humans she feeds from?" Serena asked, frowning. "Couldn't she kill them?"

A shadow passed through Rick's face. "Yeah, she could. They wont let a younger vampire feed on a human unless the vampire that sired them is there with them. The Sire can stop the younger one from taking too much blood. If the Sire isn't around, then usually a lycanthrope is the preferred food."

Serena wasn't aware that silence had fallen around them. The others had begun to listen to their conversation with interest. Molly was blushing slightly as Rick spoke. "Ok. Now you have brought up two questions-."

"What is a Sire? And what is a lycanthrope?" He asked, his grin broadening. "A 'sire' is a vampire that turns a human. I guess you would say they become the parent of a new vampire." He paused, and Serena nodded. "A lycanthrope is a were-creature. Lycanthropy is the scientific term for the disease."

"Were-creature? You mean werewolf, right?" Serena asked. Rick nodded.

"Among others." Serena felt her blood go cold. "And before you ask, yes there are other were-creatures. There are werewolves, wererats, weretigers, werelions, werehyenas, and werebears, just to name some of them."

"You know about the attack on the plane the day before yesterday?" Rick nodded. "Do you think it could have been anything besides a werewolf?" Serena asked, thinking quickly.

He shrugged. "Honestly it could be any of them. But for the time being, since my pack is warring with an invading pack, I would have to say werewolf."

"You're a werewolf?" Amy asked suddenly. Serena started and turned to face their audience. Rick blushed slightly and nodded.

"Did anyone know you were a werewolf?" Lita asked, suddenly on guard. Her face became serene, which was a look Serena had learned to associate with Lita getting into a fight.

Serena was the one that answered. "Yeah, he is Molly's donor." The others in the room glanced at each other. Serena looked at Darien, who looked mildly surprised. He wasn't watching Rick, but staring at Serena as if trying to figure out how she had known. She scowled and looked away. She hadn't told anyone of the feelings she got when she was around vampires. Honestly, she was scared of them, but in a sense, she was getting used to it. The fact that she had sensed what Rick was, by the energy he gave off, would be admitting that there was something funny going on with her and she didn't want the others to look at her the way that they were looking at Rick.

"Donor?" Raye asked, looking at Molly.

"She needed blood when she first woke up, Raye." Serena stated rolling her eyes.

"Don't start, Serena." Raye growled in response, glaring at her.

Molly sighed bringing everyone's attention back to her. "I'm here to tell you what I know about werewolves, but I think that the best person to tell you is the werewolf himself. I can arrange a meeting with the New Tokyo pack leaders. The full moon is tomorrow night and they have their Moon Hunt at that time. I think that that would be the best time to meet them." She looked at Serena. "All I can really tell you is that I don't believe that anyone of the New Tokyo pack would have killed your friend."

"No, the New Tokyo pack wouldn't allow an innocent to be hurt." Rick stated vehemently. "But they wont interfere with another were-creatures pack, or another were-wolf pack, for that matter. We don't understand the other lycans' rules any more than they understand ours."

"What can you tell us about werewolves?" Amy asked softly. She looked like she was eager to learn what he had to offer, but didn't want to appear like it. She glanced at Serena and flushed slightly.

"Well, I'm not really sure exactly what you want to know. Our pack structure is made of Alphas, Betas, and Omegas. Alphas are the strongest of us, they can do things like a Master vampire can, that the others cant do. They control the pack. We have a king and queen; at least I think that is what you would call them. They control the entire pack. The king can be either sex, but is the complete dominant of the pack. The queen is the king's mate, and usually if the king picks a mate they get married in real life. If another alpha wants to be king he has to challenge the pack's current king and defeat him to get the title.

"Betas are the in-betweens. They don't have enough power to be Alphas, but are higher up than the Omegas. The Betas are what make up most of the pack. Omegas are the lowest in the pack. They are completely submissive. Most new werewolves are Omegas because they can't control their beasts. If you learn to control the beast, you can challenge a Beta to become a Beta yourself." He paused. "Does any of that make sense?"

Amy and Serena were the only ones who nodded. The others looked at Serena surprised. She knew it was because she had never been good at understanding long lectures on anything, but she needed any information she could get to find Lily's killer, and so, in effect, was a dry sponge, soaking up everything that Rick said.

"Tell us what he said, Serena." Raye challenged.

Serena rolled her eyes. "The pack structure is complicated. There are three types of pack members. The alphas are dominant and are the most powerful. They rule the pack. Betas are weaker than alphas, but stronger than omegas. Omegas are the weakest of the pack. New werewolves are considered Omegas because they cant control their change. If they can learn to control the change, they can challenge one of the other pack members who are stronger than them to earn a new rank in the pack." She paused. "Oh and there is a guy and girl who are the top dogs, so to say. If an alpha challenges and defeats the current leader of the pack, they become the leader and choose a mate."

Rick nodded, almost excited. Serena didn't think she could simplify it any more than that, but figured she had done a good job of turning Rick's lecture into something the others could understand. "Does that make sense?" Rick asked. This time everyone nodded. He grinned. "Well. As I said, the alphas are more powerful than the rest. One of their strengths is the fact that they can change into their beast at will, day or night. Alphas can stop themselves from changing the moment the full moon rises, but they have to do so sometime during the night. They can also stop Betas and Omegas from changing until they are away from human habitation. Betas, while they have more control over their beasts, still change during the full moon, whether they want to or not. The only difference from the Omega is the fact that they can control how far they change, into a full wolf, or a half wolf, I mean. And they keep their mind. Omegas can do none of that. They just transform and attack. They are mindless and out of control."

"So how does this help us to find who or what killed Serena's friend?" Raye asked looking bored.

"I told you that I didn't know what you wanted to know, so I just started at the beginning. What would you like to know about us?" Rick asked, good-naturedly. Serena glared at Raye, who ignored her.

"Well, why would they want to kill Lily?" Raye asked, sitting back in her chair.

"Why does anyone kill anyone else?" Rick replied. He shook his head. "I don't know why they would target your friend." He told Serena. "My best guess would be information, maybe she knew something about someone that would destroy them. Most people wouldn't like to know that there are werewolves in the world. They would like us probably less than vampires."

"How do you change a person into a werewolf?" Amy asked, interested.

"The only time we can infect another human is when we are in lycan form, and even then we can only contaminate another human if we bite or claw them and manage not to kill them." Rick said. "It's a hundred percent certain that if a human gets bit or clawed by a lycan they will turn at the next full moon. As far as the other creatures, wererats are the same way. The others, bears, hyenas, lions, tigers, and such, I have no clue how they transmit the disease."

"So if you were to transform right now, and purposely claw or bite one of us, we would become a werewolf?" Mina asked, looking slightly pale. Rick nodded.

"But I'm a beta. I can keep my mind enough that if I transformed I would be able to stop myself from hurting anyone in the room." He stated proudly. Serena couldn't help the smile she gave him.

"Have children ever been infected?" Darien asked quietly.

Rick frowned. "Yes. They didn't survive. Children's bodies are ill adapted to containing a beast."

"Can female werewolves have children?" Amy asked.

"No. The transformation is too violent. If the female manages to get pregnant, by the first full moon, it would die." Rick told her.

"Ok. I think we are getting off the track of what we are supposed to be learning here." Raye stated standing up. She began to pace in the center of the room. Serena had very rarely seen Raye that agitated.

"Raye, its best if we learned all we can about them. Not just about why they would kill." Darien told her, frowning. He turned back to Rick. "Why would a werewolf kill a human?"

"Food. I mean, mostly food. An Omega will kill anything, but very few of our Omegas were ever around humans when they changed. Usually the entire pack goes together for the hunt. And we all look out for the Omegas to make sure they don't go after something that would lead people into believing we are around and not myths." Rick said thoughtfully. "The invading pack seems to like to kill period though, sometimes to eat, other times to just do so. Though they mostly go after the humans my pack cares about. Just yesterday, one of the Alphas found their human girlfriend torn open in an alley next to his house."

Serena swallowed convulsively, she had to try to speak twice before she was actually able to do so. "And the only thing you can think of, that they would kill Lily for, is information?" Rick nodded. "What would she know that would be of any use to them?"

Rick thought for a moment. "Anything. She could have known that a very good businessman was a werewolf and if she told the world, well… Or she could have just known that there was werewolves and was threatening to tell the world."

"Blackmail?" Amy asked.

Rick nodded.

Serena frowned. "I am sorry, but I know Lily. She wouldn't have done anything like that. She's just not that type. Honestly." Then something clicked in Serena, and she felt her face grow cold. "The information." She whispered. Everyone looked at her, confused. "Remember, she kept repeating that she had something really important to tell me, something she couldn't tell me on the phone or in a letter."

AN: Feel free to read and review. Leave comments, questions, thoughts, ideas, etc if you wish.

Thanks to kamalchemy(grins, youll have to read the rest of the story to see why lil came to New Tokyo, wink), moonqueen, serenityzkiss (Maybe they will maybe they wont... grin), Princess Consuela Bananahammock (BTW nice name, I have to look at your reviews to spell it wink Giggles), liloazngurl03 (a small hint to why sere cant be with dar... ok no hint, sorry but it would give the story away... pouts), Megan Consoer, sailor lunakitty, ffgirlmoonie, allieb13.