Chapter Eleven

Spy

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
Serena felt cold. She hadn't been able to fall asleep since finding out that someone wanted her dead. She couldn't figure out why, and it was starting to seriously scare her. She also couldn't help wondering what had happened to Luna and Artemis. They had been gone for almost three days and there wasn't any sign of them.

She shouldn't have worried though. After a while, she got up and went to the library, where she found two cat carriers, containing Artemis and Luna, a box with a sawed-off shot gun, a browning hi-power, and some extra ammo, and a note. The note simply read:

They saw me. I apologize for taking them, but I didn't want you to know the truth until later.
Unfortunately your friend made that impossible, so here are your cats. A present and an apology are in the box.

The note wasn't signed, but Serena had the feeling that her new friend, Cat, had something to do with it. She put the note down and stared at the guns that she had already removed from the box. For a moment, she just sat there wondering what to do with the guns when the cats woke up.

"Serena!" Luna cried. "Are you alright?"

Serena stared at her, then opened the door to the carrier to let Luna out. "Yeah. Shouldn't I be?"

"We saw a girl who was watching the palace. We tried to warn you but she caught us. We're sorry." Artemis said as Serena opened his carrier. Serena sighed.

"It's alright. She told me about the contracts." And she filled them in on what had happened since they had vanished.

Luna looked vaguely disgruntled. "You mean it took you guys three days to realize we were gone?" She asked, sounding disappointed. "I thought you guys would have come looking for us days ago."

"Pay up, Luna." Artemis said, almost happily.

"Go away, fur brain." She snapped at him. Serena turned away from them and picked the note back up, staring at it.

"We had a bet!" Artemis replied.

"I thought I would win."

"Does that mean you're pulling out?"

Serena glanced over her shoulder at them. "Why don't you two get married and get it over with." She said blankly. The both froze and turned to stare at her.

"Are you alright, Serena?"

Serena sighed. "What do you think, Luna? I mean I find out that professionals have been hired to kill me and I have no clue why."

"Have you thought to ask around?" Molly asked from the doorway.

"What do you mean?"

Molly shrugged and came into the room. "I see you have some toys." Her voice sounded strange, like she was straining to have a normal conversation.

"What's wrong, Moll?"

"Nothing. Nothing. I just… I…" She sighed and sat down on the floor next to Serena. "I'm bored." She finally said. She looked up at Serena and added, "Why don't we go to the club and see what's happening?" Serena frowned at her.

"I can't really go anywhere right now, Moll."

"Do you really think the palace will keep you safe?" Molly asked, looking slightly surprised. "I mean if someone wants to kill you bad enough, I don't think the palace walls can keep them out."

"Do you have any suggestions?"

"Actually, I do. Serena you are extremely spontaneous. You have no set pattern. If you stayed here, you will start making a pattern. I think you should just do what you want. As it is, you have already started a pattern since I came here. I'm pretty sure that the bad guys will pick up on that." Molly said reasonably.

Serena was surprised by Molly's reasoning and could see what she meant. She had started a pattern. Most of the time she was in her room, but even though her curtains had been exchanged two months earlier, she was sure that a professional would know how to bypass that, and since she didn't know how they worked, she wouldn't have been surprised if they just showed up in her room.

"Ok." Serena said, her mood starting to brighten up. "Where do you wanna go?"

Molly looked down blushing slightly. "Well, I wouldn't mind dropping by the club. I know you hate going there, but… you see, Josh hangs out there."

Serena laughed. "Ok." She said, standing up. "I have to write a note so that everyone will know that I'm goofing off instead of running away." She told Molly, then glancing down at the guns, grabbed the browning and some extra clips. "Can't be too careful." She said before trotting from the room.

Serena sat at the bar watching the dancing couples, her thoughts on Darien. She had wanted to talk to him but hadn't been able to with Cat appearing. He had gone to bed shortly afterwards, and Serena suspected that he hadn't gone to his room for sleep, but privacy.

Someone sat down next to Serena, barely making any noise. Of course the music was so loud that a marching band could have come through the Dance Hall and they would have been completely muted out by the noise from the loud speakers all over the walls. Serena didn't even bother to look and see who it was due to the fact that too many people were too scantily clothed to pay much attention to without blushing.

Molly vanished shortly after they had gotten to the Limbo Dance Hall, spiraling away into the crowd, probably looking for Josh.

Serena stiffened, her thoughts coming to a halt. Josh couldn't be there, it was a full moon, and he had to be with the pack still. It had only been about two hours since they had seen the pack, which would have put the time around eleven or twelve. She glanced around and pushing the sense, that she used when she felt vampires and werewolves, out searching for anything that was even close to feeling like a werewolf. There was nothing, other than vampires anyway.

She stood up, but a hand caught her wrist. She turned to stare at Nikolai. He was dressed more casually, wearing a royal blue silk dress shirt and black slacks. The shirt brought out the blue of his eyes, and with his hair tied completely back, he looked exactly like Darien. At first, she thought he was Darien, but even though his eyes were bluer, they still had the red tint. She tried to jerk her wrist from his hand, but his grip tightened, almost painfully. In response he pulled her back down on her seat.

"Why are you so frightened of me?" Nikolai asked. Serena frowned.

"Was this some kind of crude joke?" She replied. She was afraid of him, and she knew it. She didn't really like the feeling.

"No, this was not a joke." He said, waving a waiter over. "White Russian for the Lady, and Red Wine for me." He told the young man, who with widened eyes, rushed to answer the order, forgetting to serve the others that had ordered before them. Serena stared at Nikolai.

"How did you know I only drink White Russian?" Serena asked.

"Every time you come, you order the same drink. My waiters know you well, Serena. And Molly hides nothing from me." He told her, handing her the drink when the waiter had placed it on the counter.

"Why should you care?" Serena asked feeling slightly surprised.

"What do you mean?" He inquired, sipping his drink as he watched her.

"Having waiters watch me, keeping tabs on my drinks, and making Molly tell you that I have been visiting." She said, putting her glass on the bar without touching it.

"Interest." He said. Then he leaned toward her. Serena pulled back thinking he was going to try to kiss her, but realized he was about to say something and couldn't stop herself from leaning toward him to hear what he was saying. "I have been wanting to talk to you since you killed Korin, but I thought you were dating your illustrious Prince."

"You sent Molly to spy on me, then lure me here." Serena said, catching on. She felt horrible. The closest friend she had ever had, had turned on her. She mentally made note to get Molly out of the palace as soon as possible. "I can't believe you would spy on me!" Serena growled, finally managing to pull away from him. She grabbed the White Russian and dumped it on him, then stood up and walked into the crowd, searching for Molly.

A man grabbed her arm and tried to force her to dance with him, before she had gotten more than a few steps. Something flew past her head, catching the man's face, and causing blood to squirt from his nose. Serena flinched, shocked, and backed up. Nikolai grabbed her arms and spun her around to face him.

"You shouldn't be in here alone." He told her.

"I have done fine in the past." She snapped.

He sighed, shaking his head, and released her. "Fine." He turned and walked back to the bar. Serena stared at his receding back for a moment, then as another man tried to grab for her, she stalked after him.

He was sitting at the bar talking to another woman, when she managed to find her way out of the crowd. Surprisingly, she felt jealousy rise inside her. Sternly reprimanding herself, she sat down. I'm only jealous cause he looks like Darien. She told herself, angrily.

Almost as if her thoughts conjured him, Darien appeared at her elbow looking like a storm. He jerked her off the stool roughly and pulled her into the crowd. Nikolai obviously noticed it because the moment she and Darien were outside, he came through the entrance doors.

"Is that the reason you don't want to be with me, Serena?" Darien growled, not noticing that Nikolai had followed them.

"No!" Serena gasped, trying to pull her arm from his painful grip. "Please let go." She whimpered.

"You want to leave me for a creature that has been undead for at least three centuries?" Darien snapped, shaking her slightly.

"Darien! Stop!" Serena cried. His fingers were biting into her skin painfully, and she was starting to get scared. He shook her again.

"I can't believe you, Serena!" He shouted. People in the line to get into the dance club were beginning to stare. Nikolai stepped up to Darien and pried his fingers from her arm. He pushed Serena behind him and stood facing Darien.

"I think you need to calm down." Nikolai said, his voice was blank, almost monotone.

"Get out of the way, Nikolai. She doesn't want you." Darien snapped, anger contorting his face.

"I don't think so. You didn't even realize that you were hurting her." Nikolai said calmly. Serena, who had been rubbing her arm where Darien had grabbed it, stepped between them. Without thinking about it, she slapped Nikolai. It had been hard enough that she felt the sting in her palm, but his face had still been wet due to the drink she had spilled on him, and that had to have added to the sting. She grabbed Darien's hand and pulled him toward the street, but not knowing where he was parked, stopped on the sidewalk.

"Come on, Darien." She said, starting to shiver in the crisp air. "Let's get out of here." She could feel Nikolai watching her, but didn't want to turn around to see his expression. No matter what Nikolai or Darien thought, she would always love Darien; she just couldn't handle the price that came with him.

Darien didn't say anything for a moment, before he cupped her chin and lifted her face to his. "I'm sorry, Serena. I just… I got jealous. I saw you sitting there with him, and… Did you get him wet or did someone else?" Darien asked, glancing back toward the entrance.

"He bought me a drink, I poured it on him." Serena shrugged. "Can we go home now?" She begged, shivering hard enough that her teeth had begun clattering. Darien looked down at her and took his coat off, then draped it over her shoulders.

"How did you get here?" Darien asked, grabbing her hand more gently and pulling her along behind him.

"Molly." Serena said, taking a deep breath. "She's a spy."

Darien couldn't believe what he had done when he had seen Serena sitting next to Nikolai. He had never wanted to hurt Serena, but he couldn't seem to loosen his hold on her when he had pulled her from the dance hall. He felt terrible about it, and hoped that Serena didn't think he was abusive. He had gotten carried away, thinking that she had left him for an undead corpse. Honestly, he didn't know what he would do if she did leave him for Nikolai. Maybe he could kill Nikolai.

He sighed turning the heater on in his car as he held the door open for Serena. She sat down looking relieved and buckled herself into her seat as Darien closed her door. He was starting to realize how cold it was as he walked around his car. Fishing the keys from his pocket he opened his door and climbed in. But he didn't start the car.

"Serena, I really didn't mean to hurt you. Are you alright?" He asked, looking at the marks on her arm where his fingers had been. She looked at him and nodded.

"Yeah, I'm ok." She told him. "I'm just upset that in four days time a friend of mine is killed and another turns spy, what next?" She shook her head. "I mean, will one of the scouts be a monster in disguise?"

Darien sighed. "I'm sorry about Molly. Do you want me to get her coffin out of the palace?"

"No. I think I want to know why she did it. How could she betray me like that? Is this paybacks for when I took off? I thought she had forgiven me for it." She rubbed a hand over her face, and then glanced up at him. "I'm sorry, Darien. If I had thought about it I would have realized it was a trap. She said she wanted to meet her boyfriend. I didn't even think about it until I was there. But he couldn't have been there; he's out with the pack."

Darien didn't know what to say, so he started the car, shifted into gear, and pulled out of the parking lot.