Chapter Nineteen

Help

Darien was beginning to think that trying to ask Andrew for help was a lost cause. Andrew had invited them inside with a, "I knew you would be coming," offered them drinks and politely said he didn't want to be involved in their disputes with the other pack.

Darien shook his head as he stared at his friend. "You offered us help, and now you retract it?"

"It isn't that easy, Darien. There are a lot of things involved in dominance struggle. But trying to save one little girl from a deadly pack, hoping she's still alive… I doubt that she's still alive." Darien turned quickly to look at Serena, who had flinched and paled. Her eyes darkened, and Darien knew that Mount Serena was about to erupt. He was right.

"How DARE you?" Serena exploded, standing. Her cup fell to the floor, and shattered, forgotten. "That is your future princess, you had better come up with a better reason for not trying to save her, or so help me God, I will make you pay for it."

Out of the corner of Darien's eye, he saw Andrew pale and his eyes widen. "You cannot intervene Princess. You don't understand our ways. You should never have gotten involved in the first place."

"Gotten involved?" Serena smiled gruesomely. "Gotten involved?" She stalked toward Andrew's chair. "If I remember correctly, I was kidnapped by Chad. I wasn't wearing a neon sign that said I wanted to be involved in your God-damned politics. Nor did any of those people who have gotten killed because of your packs. You have the nerve to tell me not to have gotten involved, after we explained to you that we wanted nothing to do with your stupid werewolf laws?" She stopped at the edge of his chair and leaned into him, her voice growing colder. "I happen to know a good deal of reporters who would love to know that a Werewolf pack exists, and how to find them. And trust me, even if you move, or run away or whatever, I will find you." She finished in a whisper. Andrew gaped at her as if he had never seen her before. Hell, I've never seen her act like this before, Darien thought, surprised.

Andrew growled. It was a sound that shouldn't have come from a human throat. But Serena stood over him like a shadow of death, and apparently his growl was for show because finally, he nodded.

"Blackmail isn't the best way of doing things, Princess. It makes a lot of enemies." Andrew stated. Serena stepped back.

"Risking my daughter because you can't get off your ass to fight your own God-damned battles makes enemies as well. And given the fact that I am the Princess of New Tokyo, that would make me an extremely powerful enemy." Andrew paled even more, if that was possible. Darien frowned, something was swimming across his skin, but it didn't feel hot or cold, like what Serena had described about werewolves or vampires. He looked at Serena who turned toward him. "Let's get going. We know where they are." She glanced over her shoulder at Andrew, as she started for the door. "Oh, and Andrew. You have one hour to gather your people for war, if you are late, I have plenty of numbers and time on my hands… Don't disappoint me." Then she was out the door, followed closely by Cat who was snickering softly.

Darien turned back toward Andrew. "I can't really say I'm sorry, since she's right. You should have done something about this a long time ago, Andrew. If you had, we wouldn't have gotten involved, and you wouldn't be risking exposure." Darien closed the door behind him. He felt bad for his friend, but at that moment, he felt that whatever inner battle Andrew was going through, it had better not risk Renee, or he would find a silver bullet to put in one of Cat's guns.

Serena climbed from Darien's car and stared around. The place that Andrew had led them to was an old factory warehouse, on the farthest end of town from the palace. It was completely dark. She turned back to look at the others, Darien and Cat climbing from Darien's car, and the other girls from Raye's jeep. They looked as puzzled as she felt. Andrew and Rita climbed from Andrew's truck as three vans pulled in beside Raye's jeep. Around fifteen werewolves climbed out of the vans to group around Andrew and Serena.

Finally, a small black car pulled in behind the vans and three vampires piled from it. Molly stood nervously to one side of the car, while the other two vampires, one who Serena had met before and recognized as Damin, moved to stand on either side of Serena.

Damin looked as he had when she had first met him. He was just slightly taller than Darien, with dark brown hair that hung in limp strands around his face and past his shoulders. His honey-brown eyes took on a blank look, but somehow Serena knew he wasn't happy to be there. His skin was a sickly yellowish color, as if the skin hadn't seen sunlight in several years.

The second man was also dark haired, but his hair was cropped close to his scalp in a butch cut. Muscles bulged underneath a thinly stretched T-shirt and skintight jeans. He looked as unhappy, as Serena suspected Damin was, to be there. Both men didn't look uncomfortable about being in the middle of a group of strangers and keeping Serena well away from the rest of the group. Serena frowned.

"What are you two doing?" She asked, trying to keep her voice from revealing her annoyance.

"Nikolai told us to protect you at all costs." Ah, yes, Serena thought with a mental sigh, Nikolai's orders. Nikolai had found out what she had planned on doing, probably through Andrew, and had sent Molly and the two goons to watch over her. She glanced speculatively at Andrew. His eyebrows were at his hairline, as he stared uncomfortably at the bodyguards.

"Damin, I think he would want me to figure out a plan of action. So take your friend, here-."

"Tomar." Damin grunted.

"- take Tomar and step back so we can make a plan." Serena continued as if he hadn't said anything. She glared at the both of them, but they didn't move.

"Nikolai swore to punish them if they didn't keep you safe." Molly said, stepping forward slowly. She glanced around nervously. "Damin, back off or Nikolai will punish you." Molly told Damin. Damin glared at her but stepped back. Tomar followed suit.

"Whatever you say boss." Damin grunted.

Molly moved to stand next to Serena. "What's the plan?" She asked, still looking around. Her eyes didn't fall on anyone in particular, but past them all, to the shadows around them. Serena sighed.

"What are you doing?" Molly's eyes settled on her for a moment, before moving swiftly back to the shadows.

She dropped her voice to a whisper and spoke from the side of her mouth, as if trying to make sure no one else saw her lips move. "They know we're here."

As she spoke there was a soft growl from the shadows.

AN: Feel free to read and review. Leave comments, questions, thoughts, ideas, etc if you wish. If you do have a question, I can respond to it at the bottom of the chapter, or ask for confirmation about the particular question. I ask that if you do have something to say against my writing, you word it politely.

AN: Thanks to Roisin Midnight, ffgirlmoonie, MistressofDeathSarena, rosebudjamie, moonqueen, enchantedmoon89, kamalchemy88, Angel of Serenity88. Your reviews keep me thinking, and keep me writing... keep it up!

To Roisin Midnight, who wrote: "Her father, from the silver milleinium, was in some way conected to powers of darkness. Now as we know Lunears are more connected to healing than death, so this is how Serena losses her powers. Her father and mothers' blood fight against each other thus making her powers as sailor moon slowly decay, until she can't transform at all. And with the years that she is away her fathers 'gifts' start to come to her." Sounds good to me. That would make a lot of sense in a few ways.

AN: I am sorry that I havent posted in a couple months, grins and how they are short chapters when I do post, I lost a couple dogs this week and doing alot of other things that have taken me away from writing lately. I am still working on book four so any ideas are very welcome... as always I hate flamers, but I know bad reviews are part of life, so if you have something to say against my writing, please phrase it politely and we can see what can be done. (Im going to be rewriting SJ and possibly CV to tie them more in together, thought I will not change anything that happens in the stories, but I will be adding more information in them, add some information that is consistent with the rest of the whole series, please remember when I wrote SJ, I didnt plan on the sequels, they just happened. So now I have to tie SJ in with the others. Thank you for all of your patience, its greatly appreciated.)