Special thanks to: iridescent eyes who did the proofreading of the chapter.

CHAP 11: TORTURE.

When Robert woke up he recognized Joseph standing in front of him.

"We gave you a powerful drug." As he noticed that his hearing and vision were distorted, he could tell that it was true; he was tired both physical and mentally. He looked down at his chest and saw that the cuts Selene and Fionna had made were almost closed. He estimated by that that he had been in the same place and dealing with their shit for almost four hours. "Robert, tell them the truth. What you have experienced is nothing compared to what they will do to you if you don't speak." He could hear the compassion in Joseph's voice, but he knew he couldn't say anything. Looking around himself, he noticed that he was no longer handcuffed, they had removed them for some reason, maybe in hopes on gaining his trust so that he might then talk.

"I… already told you …I can't," he said, taking great effort to keep his face neutral. At Joseph's back he could see Selene readying a gun.

It wasn't the first time they had done something like this to one of them, but it was the first time that they had done it to someone who was close and whom they trusted. That made it more difficult for everyone except Selene. Brianna looked at her while she was looking at one of her guns. Suddenly, Sophie entered the room and stood at Brianna's side.

"The tranquilizer will lose its power in fifteen minutes, maybe half an hour, everything depends on how weak he is," she said, avoiding looking at Robert. She couldn't believe she was helping them do something like this! What was she thinking when she told Joseph she wanted to come?

Brianna nodded. "Tell us why you did it," she ordered Robert from where she was standing.

Robert just looked at them. They hadn't asked him directly what they wanted to know. He looked directly at Selene, who held his gaze with arrogance. He knew that she was the one behind all of this, that she convinced them to do this, without even knowing what he really had done. Until that moment, he hadn't hated her, but now he did with fibre of his being.

"What did I do?" he asked, playing with them, trying to win time. He hadn't been shot or hurt with silver, so he could still change form.

"Robert! This is not going to help you. Please, tell them the truth," Sophie said, blocking Selene.

"They are not going to believe me, and they'll kill me anyway," he said, looking back at her. She was going to deny that but he interrupted her before she could. "You know it's true."

"Tell them something, at least a name!"

He ignored her completely as he began to feel his strength return to him. "You are going to pay dearly for this," he said, knowing it wasn't true. He couldn't do anything and he doubted that whom he worked for would do it either. Sophie sighed at this; he prefers the painful way, she thought as she walked toward the door with Joseph.

"What are you going to do?" he heard Selene's emotionless voice say as she stood in front of him. "You are at a disadvantage here, and I really doubt that threatening us is going to work." She was serious, but he knew she was mocking him with the comment.

"You feel so sure…because you are surrounded by people that you think would help you if I were to attack you, because you have your damn gun in your hands, but without them I could take you out in an instant."

Selene doubted that was true; Robert didn't know how to fight, especially in human form. "You didn't attack me a couple of months ago," she said, looking at the gun.

"Because they didn't give me the chance!" he yelled, noticing that she was the only one in the room who had a gun.

"We are not here to speak about your abilities as a warrior," Brianna said as she approached him.

"I always wondered how you looked while you interrogated someone. I couldn't believe what they said about your cruelty, until I experienced it," he said, not looking up, still feigning wariness. "I guess once a Death Dealer, always a Death Dealer. What you show when you are around us is pure hypocrisy."

Brianna knew too much to fall for what he was trying, so she only ignored him. "We have evidence of what you've done, and believe me, that attitude not going to help you, even with your own kind," she said, walking toward Joseph and Sophie.

"It hurts you to know that you are an assassin, that you have committed genocide and can't even feel regret about it." He was only saying it because he was trying to take advantage of the dissipation of the tranquilizer's effects. "In some ways, you are still doing it. You hide the pleasure you feel when you kill us with the work Gabriel has you do."

"Your behavior is also making you the prime suspect of Charles's death. Maybe if you tell us why you changed Michael's pills they'll let you live."

"Yeah, right." That was an empty promise and he knew it. Seeing his opportunity, he jumped forward and was going to take Selene's gun. But she was quicker than he had thought. As he was mid-leap she was already aiming at his head. He looked at her, and she was just staring at him emotionlessly. But he knew that she was not going to kill him; she would have done it hours ago. She was so close, and he began to change and threw himself at her with a growl. He was surprised at first that she didn't shoot him, but when he was almost two meters from her she pulled the trigger, looking at him coldly. When he lost his balance he noticed that she had shot him in his shinbone. He struggled to stand up or to change but he couldn't. When he heard her steps approaching, he looked up at her defiantly. "What are you going to do now, bitch? Kill me?"

Selene looked down at him. Killing him was exactly what she wanted to do, but she would have to wait a couple of hours more. "I'll make you suffer first," she said darkly as she grabbed him by the neck and dragged him to the chair. She felt him struggle and try to break free from her grip, but she knew that the silver in the bullet had begun to take effect. When he was seated again, he saw Sophie coming toward them. He felt Selene cuffing to the chair by his wrists and ankles, preventing him from moving.

He knew that struggling was futile, but he had no intention of giving in without a fight. "Stop struggling. The wound is bleeding badly," Sophie said, but he didn't obey. She wanted to help him but she doubted they would let her. Sighing, she sat in the chair previously occupied by Selene.

"I gave you an opportunity, and you didn't take it," Selene said with disdain as she took a pair of silver forceps and introduced them slowly into the injury, beginning to search for the bullet. Smelling and hearing flesh burning, she caught the bullet and tore it out after a several seconds. Robert had tried not to show any signs of pain, but the moment she yanked the bullet out he could not stop the whimper from escaping his throat. "Now, let's begin," she said, putting the bullet on a small table at her side just as Brianna came to stand at her other side.

Brianna usually loved this part of dealing with lycans, but now she was not feeling it. "What are you waiting for? No one is going to rescue you."

"No one is going to make me talk," he said, looking from Brianna to Selene, but internally he knew that it might not be entirely true.

"I wouldn't be so sure of that," Selene answered as she extracted an iron knife from her coat and proceeded to cut the flesh of his chest. As she did it, blood began to flow out and over his skin. Sometimes she pushed the knife even deeper, but with the enough experience to know when she was close to a vital organ.

"You know, I never thought you would have gotten rid of Viktor's knife," Brianna said when she examined the simple knife that Selene was holding. It was so different from the ones Viktor had given to the vampires sired by him.

Robert tried to move as he felt the sharp edge tearing his flesh and muscles apart. "Why don't you just finish this now? No point in continuing it," he said, his breath ragged.

"I didn't, I still have it," Selene answered Brianna, concentrating on what she was doing.

Brianna knew that it was not the moment for that, she had asked the question as a way to ignore Robert, but that Selene had answered it that was very odd, and now her curiosity had picked up. "Why?" The look Selene gave her meant she was not going to talk any more. "Whom do you think killed Charles?" she asked after several minutes.

"Whom do you think?" she retorted sarcastically, stopping to put away the bloody forceps.

Brianna looked at Robert, who was beginning to pass out from blood loss. "I don't think it was him."

"It wasn't..." he said with his last breath before passing out, wishing never to wake up again.

Joseph looked at Brianna. "I know you think he is innocent, but what about what he did to Michael? He is not innocent for that." Brianna nodded, knowing it was true.

"I don't think what we are doing is right…" Sophie said after a while. "We should have gone to Gabriel or Sebastian, they would have made a decision."

"Their decision would have resulted in the same outcome," Selene said.

"Yeah, killing him without getting any answers."

"He will answer. I have seen many of them break."

The casual tone of Selene's voice was making Sophie angry. How could she do something like that to one of them? But it wasn't just her; Joseph was doing it too. She was beginning to think that what Robert told to Brianna was true. "I'm not going to be a part of this," she said as she left of the room. She had re-ran the house at least three times by now, and she decided to enter through the farthest room from where Robert was, his screams more muffled by the concrete. Why didn't he just speak? At least they would kill him without making him suffer more, she supposed as she sat in a chair and put her arms over the table, and then put her head over her arms. There was no way to inform Gabriel, as they were only Brianna and Robert knew. Apparently it was one of their hideouts fifty years ago. The front of the building gave the impression of being abandoned, but the interior was in good condition. It had bedrooms, training and shooting rooms, a laboratory, infirmary, and vigilance room. Somehow she suspected that the warriors came here when they were in trouble. After all, there were all kinds of provisions, from blood to bombs. What could she do to help Robert?

When Robert awoke again he saw Brianna's back toward him while she was doing something over a table. What it was, he couldn't see. "What she's doing is disassembling several silver nitrate bullets and putting their content in a syringe," Selene said after a while. "We will then inject it into your injuries. It will hurt, but it won't kill you. The silver won't damage your organs; it will only itch and burn everything in its path, almost the same as when I removed the bullet, but a little more painful."

"How long have you been doing this? You seem to have practice," he commented venomously while looking at her.

"Enough to know what I'm doing," she said as she approached Brianna. She was doing it for a valid cause and she didn't regret it, or at least that was what she thought, but wasn't it also the pleasure it brought? Why, if she knew they didn't kill her family, did she not even feel regret for the innocents killed by her own hand? Or did she feel remorse but didn't want to acknowledge it?

"This is ready," Brianna said, looking at Selene. For his part, Robert knew what was expected him. It didn't look good, but he tried to convince himself that he could withstand it, and that Selene was only exaggerating. But from the way Joseph was staring at him, he guessed that his assumption wasn't a correct one. Brianna turned around and walked decisively toward him and put her finger inside the tube, getting her finger coated in the black substance. Then she reached for his neck and lightly touched him. Immediately he could feel the burning and grit his teeth so he would not scream. "Last chance before it gets really painful."

I am not going to speak. I am not going to speak. I am not going to speak, he repeated over and over again, but knowing that he might do it. But if he did, he was not going to easily. Maybe he deserved all this. "Bring it on."

Joseph shook his head at that, and immediately after he heard loud screams as Brianna coated her fingers and introduced them inside some of Robert's wounds. Occasionally she even twisted them; her nails making it hurt even more. After a couple of minutes, she paused for a moment to wait for Robert to calm down. Robert looked at Brianna, who only looked back at him. "They weren't even the deep ones," she said, still with one of her fingers inside a wound.

"Why are you so blind?" he questioned. He could see the anger in her face. "Have you seen all the tapes? Why do you still think that I did something wrong?" he asked, but saying nothing more.

Brianna raised an eyebrow at that. What did he mean? And why did he speak then? She could feel Selene's eyes on them as she approached. "Meaning...?" Brianna asked, but Robert only turned his face away. He looked at Selene and saw her looking back at him with hate. She did the same Brianna, only more harshly, introducing her fingers into the really deep cuts. After a moment, Brianna began to do the same. His screams they paused after a while. "Well?" Brianna asked, but again he didn't answer. She nodded and walked to the table again and Selene followed.

He saw them talking as they cleaned the blood and silver off their hands. Instead of being relieved, he was more terrified than ever. What were they going to do now? What's more painful than that? He looked at them as they got closer to him again, Selene holding a vial. "You are so disgusted by my kind that you have to wash the blood off your hands as quickly as you can," he said, but they ignored him as always when he said something that wasn't part of the interrogation. He felt Brianna holding his head up. Maybe because of his weakness her grip felt stronger. "What are you doing?" he asked, scared, and soon he noticed Selene's presence at his side, her bringing her index finger toward his eye. By instinct he shut them and tried to move his head, but he couldn't. After a second he felt Selene touching him lightly, and a tenth of second later he felt his cornea begin to burn. He felt something warm dripping from his eye, but didn't know if it was the silver, blood, or tears; maybe it was a mix of all three. He felt when she took her finger away, but then she did it again, this time with more pressure. His scream this time was louder and more pained than the ones before. He struggled in vain, then saw a shadow and knew his left eye was next. Before she could put her finger in the eye, he spoke without thinking. "I didn't change the last pills Charles gave him." Selene and Brianna looked at each other and waited for him to explain. He waited for several seconds and then opened his eyes. Immediately he regretted it as an intense shock went from his eye to his brain. "Fuck, that hurt," he said as he tried to put his hand in his eye, forgetting that he was handcuffed. He waited a little more and then opened them again, and then he closed them again.

"You are completely blind. The silver has damaged your retina. More exposure to light will only cause more damage," Selene said, waiting for him, but he didn't show signs that he had heard her. She sunk her finger into his eye again. She knew that it was painful, but it wasn't life threatening.

As she was going to touch him again he struggled. "Charles was giving him other pills…" he breathed out. At that, Selene and Brianna stopped and Joseph stepped closer to them.

They knew he could be lying, but there was a chance that he wasn't. "You have to be more clear," Joseph said, standing to the side.

He knew that although his intentions had been good he, had no way to prove it. "I was informed by a vampire, I don't know who. I suppose it was Sebastian. He told me -"

"Do you think we are going to believe that?" Selene interrupted, as Brianna and Joseph sighed at his words.

"We are not in mood for your shit," Joseph said angrily. They had wasted valuable time with this. He was weary and couldn't comprehend why someone like Robert couldn't just talk and preferred to withstand the pain. "Tell the fucking truth!" he yelled and looked at Selene, who touched Robert's eye again.

"I am telling the truth! I'm not lying!" he screamed as he struggled, this time more easily because Brianna was not holding him in place. "I don't know his identity, I had met with one of his representatives." He paused and then opened his eyes only to see nothing, making him more anxious.

Brianna looked at him; he was very naïve if he thought they were going to believe that. "And you trusted this mystery person?"

"He gave me proof, valid proof. That's why I think Sebastian is behind all this. He is one of the few people who know everything that happens in the house."

"And why didn't he confront Charles about it?" Joseph asked, disbelieving.

"I don't know! Why don't you ask him when you are done with me?"

Brianna looked at him. What if he was telling the truth? What was really happening in the house? Were they going to have to question Sebastian now? After eighty years of thrust she had her doubts about him, first for letting Marcus in the house and now for this. "We're waiting… And we want the truth…"

"I'm dead anyway," he said, and he heard someone moving, so he quickly continued. "There's no way I can prove it… But hadn't you yourself asked why Michael didn't get sick before?"

Because you are a liar, Selene thought, but she knew it was not the moment to say it.

"Why did he get sick just when I got out of the house? Charles was giving him other pills! I knew it and had orders to change them. It has to be Sebastian. There's no way it can be any other vampire or lycan." At hearing this Brianna put her hand in her coat and began to touch the little container with Charles's pills. Or maybe with Robert's.

"I find that difficult to believe" Joseph stated as he sat in a chair.

"If I had Charles's pills I could prove it, but I doubt you are going to let me go to the house and get them," he said cynically but more out of frustration with his situation.

"Where do you have your pills?" Brianna asked, and Selene looked at her. She did not believe all that, right?

Robert made an effort to look at her. If she went there and brought them he could prove it! "I told you. In the house."

She ignored the looks Selene and Joseph were giving her. "I wasn't referring to Charles's pills, I was referring to yours."

He didn't know why she wanted them, but the tone of her voice made him know that it was better to answer. They had drugged him to bring him there, and he had woken up to find himself without jacket and shirt. "In my jacket. I don't know if it's still is in the car…"

At that Brianna looked at her clock. 8:00 AM. There was no way she could get out without getting burned. "Joseph?" He looked at her incredulously, he didn't know why she was doing this or why she believed Robert, but he also knew that she was not naive. "Could you please bring his jacket?" Joseph hesitated for several seconds and then nodded.

"What the hell are you doing?" Selene asked Brianna angrily as Joseph went to the door. "Why do you believe all his lies? How do we know he didn't change them?"

Brianna rolled her eyes. She knew that they were valid questions but still her gut told her otherwise. "Why would he change them? He didn't know then that we discovered him."

Selene looked at Robert. "To deceive us."

Brianna knew Selene doubted everyone, and she did too, but sometimes it was better to give an opportunity if there was proof in. "I have the pills he was taking." Selene looked at her, disconcerted. How had she obtained them? "I took them from his table. There are only three, just as Sophie told me," she said, seeing the question in Selene's face. Selene didn't believe anything. Why was Brianna suddenly on his side?

"I swear what I said is true," he said to Brianna, knowing that maybe she could persuade Selene. Selene looked at him even more angrily and punched him in his shoulder. The crack of his bones could be heard. He could swear everything he wanted, she was not going to believe him!

Brianna saw Selene's reaction and heard Robert trying not to let a scream out of his mouth. "You are forgetting a detail."

When Selene looked at her, Brianna saw that Selene's expression had changed. "Which is?" she asked, gritting her teeth.

"Sophie was working with Charles and Michael. She is the only one here that knows the components and how they would have affected Michael. She can analyze them and tell us."

That didn't make sense for Selene. She trusted Sophie, but not Robert's innocence. But she knew that Brianna was not going to change her mind, she was as stubborn as Selene was. But to Selene there was no point in analyzing the pills, it was just a way to waste their time. "But that doesn't mean he didn't change the pills." Brianna just stared at her. She was not going to go to search for Sophie and leave Selene alone with Robert. She knew that there was little chance that he would be alive when she returned, and she doubted that if she asked Selene to go to find Sophie she would accept. So she got out a very high-tech radio. "Whom are you calling?" Selene asked, approaching her.

Brianna pushed two buttons and then looked at Selene defiantly. "Sophie. Or do you want to go find her yourself?" At that she saw Selene's expression of rage she continued. "Yeah, I didn't think so." Brianna ignored Selene as Sophie answered. "Sophie, we need you here," she said, not waiting for a reply.

When Sophie entered the room she saw Robert's burnt cheeks and eyes and his dislocated or maybe broken shoulder. She had seen injuries much worse but wasn't prepared for this. She knew that they were not going to let her help him. She cleared her throat, trying to get their attention. "Why do you want me?" She looked at Brianna as Joseph entered the room with Robert's jacket. Brianna quickly explained everything Robert had said and what she wanted to do, and asked her opinion as a doctor. "That can be done," she said, relieved that she had a way to help him. "I will do it. It will take me at least an hour to be sure."

"Good" Brianna said as she searched the pockets of the coat for the pills. She found them and gave them to Sophie. "Those are Robert's, and these" she said, getting something else out of her pocket, "are Charles's. These were the ones Michael took yesterday." Sophie took them too.

"I'm coming with you," Selene said, knowing she couldn't stand to be in that room any more and have Robert alive. Brianna raised and eyebrow at that as Sophie looked at Selene, disconcerted, but she nodded.

"What's going to happen if what Robert said is true?" Sophie asked after they entered the laboratory.

Selene shrugged. Knowing Brianna and Joseph, they would not let her kill him. "I suppose we will have to tell Gabriel and Sebastian what happened." Sophie turned around and poured the pills out of their containers. She could see that none of the pills were like the ones she helped develop with Charles and Michael. She frowned and put one under a microscope. "Why was Michael taking pills? He is immortal; he can't get sick... Or was this another one of your experiments?" Selene asked after thinking about it.

"Michael is the stronger being now. As you said, he can't get sick, but in some of our research we found that his body consumes all the substances it requires quickly."

Selene had no idea what she was talking about. She looked around and saw several medical instruments and chemical compounds. "I thought he had no weaknesses…"

Sophie searched for the chemicals she needed and found them, and then she directed her attention at the table again. "If you want to call it that," she said as she divided the pills and added a catalyst, then she looked at Selene. "You can think of the pills as vitamins. He is very new to this and his body hasn't adapted. The blood and meat didn't give him the energy he needed at the beginning, so his body consumed the nutrients very quickly, and that's probably what made him… a potential danger." Maybe that's why he attacked her, Selene thought, as Sophie returned to the microscope. He had been bleeding badly and had hardly fed. But why didn't he tell her anything about the vitamins? "He is a doctor, and although he was not familiar with our physiology, he knew what was happening. He did a study with himself and showed us the results, for us to approve. We made some modifications and told him that we would keep monitoring him, and with time as he adapted we changed the pills." She looked into the microscope and began to study the pills.

Selene knew that Sophie needed to concentrate, so she stood in the corner, thinking about what it would mean if what Robert had said were true. Who was really the person that provided him with the pills? Sebastian? And why did Charles change them? What would he get out of it? After several minutes, she saw Sophie rubbing her eyes, confused, and looking into the microscope again. "What?"

Sophie looked at Selene, alarmed, as the sound of a door being open could be heard. Immediately Selene got out her guns and walked toward the door, completely forgetting that Sophie had been about to say something. As she got closer, she heard the hurried steps of several people. Carefully, she opened the door and began to walk toward the noise. They were coming from the interrogation room! She walks lightly toward there and as she turned a corner she saw the door open and recognized that there were several vampires and lycans inside the room. What the hell was happening? "Selene," she heard Brianna say just as she was about to enter the room. Selene leaned against the wall for a couple of seconds, then, without doubt, she entered the room aiming. To her surprise she saw Brianna standing in front of her. "Calm down," she said, looking at her with her hands at her sides. Selene knew that Brianna's leg holsters had been empty when she left, but now she wasn't sure, so she quickly looked behind Brianna and saw Robert being released by Sebastian.

Upon seeing Selene leave and making sure Robert could stand on his own, Sebastian approached Selene. "It was me!" he shouted, looking at her with anger. Not knowing why, Selene dropped her arms to her sides. Sebastian looked at his guards. "Take him to the car and then feed him," he ordered, and they did what he said. Selene moved aside as they passed.

As they helped him out, Robert opened his eyes. He could barely see, but he distinguished Selene's figure. "You are a fucking sadist," he said as he passed by her.

Selene stared at him and then looked at Sebastian with her chin high. "We all have to talk," Sebastian said and then left the room.

Selene looked at Brianna, but she saw that Brianna was as surprised as she was. She had so many questions, and he just walked out the door! Brianna averted her gaze as Sophie entered the room. "Robert was telling the truth," she said, knowing they already knew it. Then they heard steps approaching again.

"You know what you were doing?" They heard the anger in Sebastian's voice. "You were attacking an innocent! You did it without having evidence."

Selene saw how everybody kept quiet. "We wouldn't have done it if you had informed us about it! At least Sophie should have known! She is his doctor!"

Her arrogance was what made Sebastian even angrier. "I don't have to give explanations to anybody, especially not to you. You should have informed Gabriel or me about it! You had to! Don't blame me for your irresponsibility!"

Selene looked at him with hate. She knew he was right, but she didn't trust him. Until that moment, she had always believed he had an ulterior motive to hurt Michael. "Why didn't you tell anyone about it?" Selene heard Joseph ask.

"Charles was not the only one involved, he was just the only one who was in the house, at least until Marcus and his Death Dealers came. I was informed yesterday that Charles had a reunion with Kraven. We were going to follow him, but then he was found dead. My suspicions were that Marcus knew about it and sent his Dealers to kill him, that way Charles couldn't tell us whom he was working for."

"You mean Kraven and Marcus are allies?" Brianna asked what she had thought for the last month.

"You doubt it?" Sebastian asked, looking at her. Knowing what she was going to ask next, he answered, "I can't let him know that. We will bring him down at the same moment we attack Kraven. That's why no one can say anything about what happened here. Only I know about it, and I will be the one to tell Michael." Brianna nodded. Everything made sense, but why was Charles killed with Fionna's knife? Why did Marcus betray Fionna? Or didn't he? "Go home." Sebastian ordered them. "Everything is ready for you," he said, looking at Selene and Brianna who nodded. "This time it will be forgotten, but next time all you will have to take responsibility of your actions." This he said while looking at Selene. She turned her face; she was angrier for being proven in her face that she was wrong, and for what Sebastian had done behind their backs. "Selene?" he asks when everybody was out of the room. She looks at him and stayed in. "Your arrogance worked with Viktor and in Ordoghaz, but with me it will not. Now you are not the preferred daughter of an Elder, you are just a soldier, and you have to behave as one," he said, putting her in her place.

Selene stared at him with anger. "I have not been anything more than a soldier for the last months." She had stopped to be Viktor's daughter, or favorite protege, but since he revealed the truth she was only a soldier. She turned around and left the room and the house.

"My Lord?" One of Kraven's guards said when he saw the car pulling up.

Kraven looked out the window. He was surprised with the vampire that he saw. "Let them in," he ordered as he got comfortable again.

"Kraven" the vampire said, looking at the clock.

Kraven smirked. "I'm surprised to see you again, I thought you had forget about our plan."

"Never. I just needed time to reconsider it, and here I am."

"So everything is going according to the plan?" he asked, looking at the others, all vampires, with that he knew that the answer was going to be yes.

One of the others answered, "Yes, here are some documents I'm sure you will be glad to read."

Kraven took them and looked quickly at them. He suddenly stopped when he got to a picture of Gabriel. "I never imagined he would be in charge of the renegades' house," he said, looking at the vampire.

The vampire smirked. "Then when you finish reading it you will be more astonished."

"I know I will," he answered, looking intensely at Selene's picture. "How did you obtain this? Have you won their trust in so little time, or is it infiltrative work?"

"I'm not going to tell you. Be happy with what you know."

"So nothing has changed?" Kraven asked looking at his watch. He had to go to the lycans' den in less than an hour.

"A couple of plans."

That was not what he meant. "So you haven't gotten used to the lycans, revenge still drives you," Kraven said, smirking, and the vampire nodded. "No one suspects you? Not even Selene? For your -"

"They don't trust anyone. That's why we have been very careful. Until now everything has been almost perfect."

"Almost? What happened? If we are going to be associates then I need to know," he ordered, dissimulating his anxiety for the constant change of plans.

"To name one, the outcome of an assassination didn't go as planed."

Kraven thought about it. The assassinated could be Charles. They had a meeting four days ago and he never came and never reported with his men. "Why did you do that? You know what he represented for us inside of that house!"

"Calm down!" the vampire said, angry at been yelled at by such a coward as Kraven. "They would have suspected him eventually. He was dispensable. I have someone else inside."

Kraven looked at them intensely. He would read the documents and in their next meeting he would ask about everything he had doubts about. He knew he had to be careful with them, because as they were, he knew they were going to betray him after he took power. But he would have an ace up his sleeve, something they hated by nature and for what they had done; the lycans. Smiling, Kraven got out several cups filled with blood. Now he had won the war against these vampires and lycans. "For power."

"And revenge," the vampire added, smirking evilly.

Kraven nodded. The lycans could wait for him. "Now, what is the change of plan?" he asked after he drank the blood.

"First we will have to wait a couple of days. You will send a message to Gabriel in which you will say…"

"So that bastard is going to send his Death Dealers if you don't go?" Fionna asked Gabriel skeptically.

He nodded, and she looked at Marcus and then at Gabriel again. "And so what? We have more people; we can defend ourselves."

Selene saw her point. "Kraven is not stupid. He will be prepared."

"So we are going?" Brianna asked, not liking the idea. Somehow it seemed better he were to come there and try to defeat them. "You know, Kraven could be lying."

Gabriel knew that could be true, but… "We can't endanger the house," he answered after a moment.

"I will go with you, and a couple of my Death Dealers will be backing you up," Marcus said to Gabriel.

"Sir, I believe that won't be possible. Kraven will have a group patrolling the perimeter and we are not sure if he knows that you are here," Joseph lied, respectful of Marcus because he remembered what Sebastian had told them about Marcus and Kraven.

Marcus nodded. "But you can go with more lycans and vampires than the ones he requested, just hide them if it's possible before Kraven gets to the place."

Brianna looked at him. She really hoped he stayed there. The one thing they needed were more enemies in this little battle. "That's not possible. The meeting is in three hours. He must have his men already there."

Selene looked at them. It would take three hours just to get there. "What are we waiting for?" she asked anxiously.

"You don't even know what his intentions are," Marcus said to Selene, noticing her attitude.

She knew Marcus was behind all of it, and his attitude in this meeting had proved it. "They are not good," she said to him for the first time, "if he says that if we don't go he will destroy the house."

Fionna looked at Selene. "That's a trap, and you know it." Selene shrugged. It was very clear that it was a trap, but with what intentions? They were going to know when they got there. "Why do you think he have us so little notice?"

Selene looked at her. "We are going, and that's final."

"You are going to die," she said, seeing the obstinate way Selene said it.

"You just want to kill me with your own hands."

Joseph ignored that and looked at Brianna. "I will go to notify our men"

"We need more lycans than vampires," Brianna said just as Joseph was closing the door.

Fionna stared at Selene and then looked at Brianna. "He is to coward to be there, you know. And why does the meeting have to be almost at dawn? Can't any one of you see that this is a trap?"

Selene knew he would be there, protected by his lycans and Death Dealers. She had made a decision minutes ago, and she was not going to change it. She couldn't wait to at least take a shot at Kraven. "I'll be in the training room getting ready," she said as she left.

"How did Kraven know you were the person in charge here?" Marcus asked Gabriel.

Brianna stared at him, not believing his hypocrisy. He didn't know what they had done a week ago and what Sebastian had told them. No one knew, besides the ones who were present. "He must have some infiltrates here."

"Major reason to go. If that's true, he must know by now that we are here. So what would we lose if we come with you?" Fionna said.

"No, you are not going and that's final," Gabriel said, remembering Sebastian's words when he told him what had happened. Marcus knew that they doubted him for not giving more reasons. He didn't say anything, although he was angry at the way Gabriel spoke to him.

"So, when do you want us to send some lycans to collect your bodies?" Fionna asked as she left the room, closing the door with more force than was necessary.

Marcus looked at the door and then at Gabriel. "Do you have any idea as to who the infiltrates might be."

"If we knew than they wouldn't be here," Brianna said as she exited the room also, and went toward the shooting room to prepare herself.

"Could you leave me alone, I don't care what you say!" Selene said to Fionna, who kept insisting that Selene should stay. "You just want to-"

"-Kill you with my own hands!" she said as she stormed out of the room. If Selene wanted it that way, fine!

Selene just stayed there, readying her guns. She didn't hear anything when Brianna approached her. "We are leaving in ten minutes," she said as she began to walk away.

It was hard for Selene to ask what she was about to ask. "Brianna, wait… I need a favor."

Brianna turned around at that with an eyebrow raised. Did she hear correctly? "What kind of favor?"

"Could you stay here and watch Fionna?" At seeing that Brianna shook her head, she added, "You are the only one here that knows what she is capable of and-"

"No, I'm going. I know that my presence is not required, but -"

"You know this could be a trap. He wants us to leave the house unprotected and then attack! You wouldn't be just keeping an eye on Fionna."

"I know, and I already thought about it and I have told several lycans that they have to be careful with Marcus and his Death Dealers." Selene nodded and retired to the garage at the same time as Gabriel entered the room.

"Brianna, you are staying," he ordered. Seeing that she was going to object, he interrupted her. "I need you here. You are my right hand, and you will know what to do if we don't come back."

That was a lie. Sebastian would be there in two hours, and he would know what to do then. "But-"

"It's an order," he said as he saw Joseph, and began to approach him.

"Everything is ready."

Gabriel nodded and went to the garage, seeing everybody ready when he got there. "Don't trust them, no matter what they say, and don't attack unless they do first," he said, directing the four lycans and two vampires beside Selene and Joseph. "Is that understood?" When he saw everybody nod, he added, "Let's go." And climbed with Joseph into Selene's car.

"We have to agree in one thing," Joseph said, looking at Selene.

"This is a trap," she assured him after a while, but not being obvious as to show Gabriel what they knew about Marcus and his participation in it.

"Maybe he still wants you and is going to kidnap you," Gabriel added, smiling to try to lighten up the mood. At that Joseph raised an eyebrow and looked at Selene, who wasn't looking at the road.

Brianna entered Fionna's room. "What are you doing here?" Fionna asked, surprised, and putting away the book she was reading. "I thought you would go with them."

"There was… a change of plans," she said as she sat in a chair and put her feet on the desk.

A change of plans? "Ooh, you stayed to take care of my actions while the stronger and more powerful of the house walk into a trap?" she asked, sitting on the bed.

"Yeah, I can't forget what you and Marcus may be plotting with Kraven's help," she said as she lifted a book off the desk and read the back cover.

Fionna smiled at that. "I'm more than sure he is going to kill everyone there except Selene."

"Why does he keep up with his… obsession with her?"

"I don't know. He is an asshole, and only he knows what he is going to do to her."

Brianna put down the book. "That's what I don't understand. Why are you going to let your enemy kill your other enemy? Vengeance is something so powerful that I'm sure you want to get your hands dirty with it."

Fionna sighed. "I'm no in the mood for this shit. Now let me alone."

Brianna smiled "A little touchy, huh?" she said as she stood. "I will be watching you though," she added as she looked at the camera installed in the room.

Fionna lied back down in bed and took the book she was reading, "I know. You haven't done anything more beside that."

"Don't attack until you are attacked," Joseph repeated as they got out of the car.

"He couldn't have chosen a better place," Selene said as she saw that they were in a construction site. She knew that there must have been several Death Dealers hiding and aiming at them at that moment, the only problem was that the location seemed to be empty. Not even Kraven could be seen.

"If things get dangerous, run back to the house. No one will depend on anyone here; don't try to make yourself a hero. In reality that doesn't work," Gabriel said to one lycan and a vampire, who didn't know how to fight but were there because Kraven had requested their presence.

Joseph approached Selene as he saw her taking in the surroundings. "Do you see anything suspicious?"

She shook her head. "Do you?"

"No," He answered. After almost fifteen minutes of waiting, they heard several cars approaching them. Immediately they took defensive positions. When all the Death Dealers were in front of them, Selene and Gabriel noted that Kraven was not with them.

"Where is Kraven?" Selene asked Mason one of Viktor's Death Dealers and her former partner.

"He will be here after we have checked the place," he said with hate as the Death Dealers split up to head for different unfinished buildings. After a while, they would be heard through the walkie-talkies' 'everything is clear' several times. And after another fifteen minutes, another car made an appearance.

Kraven looked at Gabriel as he stepped out of the car. "Can I say that I never thought I would have to see you again?" he said with a scoff.

Selene looked at him. "We are not here for your stupid games."

Kraven returned her look of hate and made a sign to the Death Dealers, and they began to leave the place. Only seven stayed with him. "Let's go to a more secure place." He began to walk toward a covered storage building, and his Death Dealers follow him. Gabriel nodded, and they too began to follow him. Why had Kraven made his guards leave? He felt so sure that they were not going to kill him?

When they entered the room, Selene looked around. It was dark, enormous, dirty, and empty, apart from them and some tools. "Why are we here?"

Kraven looked at Gabriel, ignoring Selene. "As you must know by now, I made an alliance with Lucian that didn't go well, that's why I'm going to make another alliance."

Gabriel looked at him. "You must think we are as stupid as you."

Kraven smirked. "Well, I had an informant inside your house for years and you didn't notice it." Immediately Selene and Joseph looked at each other. "And I have introduced more." He saw the hate in Gabriel's face. "Marcus is our common enemy. He will try to do anything to take absolute power -"

"And that's something you want to do," Selene spat with anger and hate.

"You know me. The case is, I need more allies. What do you say?"

"I can't believe you made us come just to ask us that," Gabriel said incredulously.

"Well, I'm sure that my contacts inside your house are going to betray me, so I'm taking a step forward."

It was then that Gabriel noticed that Kraven didn't know about all the houses. He is being badly informed. "Why should we help you?" he asks, and an instant later the sound of several cars arriving could be heard. Seeing the smirk in Kraven's face, they knew that it was the moment.

One of the lycans arrived to the door to see almost ten lycans getting out of the cars and scattering all throughout the construction site, and another five coming toward where they were. When he turned around, they were waiting for him to say something. "Fifteen lycans." Immediately, Gabriel's group got out all their guns and turned around. Everyone except Selene, who aimed at Kraven's head.

"We came prepared, didn't we?" he said, making fun of them, but a little intimidated by Selene. But he knew that if she even tried to move the finger she had on the trigger, the Death Dealers would kill her. Roars and gunshots could immediately be heard as the lycans came inside. Selene turned around and began to shoot at them. She saw how one by one the lycans and her comrades fell to the floor, injured or killed. When there were no more lycans standing, Joseph, Gabriel, and Selene turned to shoot at Kraven and his guards, but they were not there anymore.

"Come on, we have to get out," Joseph said, seeing that Selene was reluctant to do so, and as Gabriel was going toward the others vampires and lycans.

"They're dead," said one vampire, standing and showing one lycan and a vampire. Gabriel nodded.

"There are another ten lycans out there, and the rest of the Death Dealers. We are dead too," said the lycan who had seen the enemy coming.

Joseph stood at their side. "We have to scatter too. We are few compared to them. You already know what to do."

Gabriel saw Selene coming toward them and putting new magazines in her guns. "Go!" As they got out the enemy began to shoot at them. Suddenly, in middle of everything, Selene saw several shadows. She immediately began to discharge her bullets in them. But then, out of the corner of her eye, she saw something approaching her, so she turned to aim and shoot, but the lycan was quicker than she was.

Fionna was practicing in the shooting room, when Michael came and stood at her side. "Hey, what are you doing up this early? Dawn was almost four hours ago."

She looked at him, frowning. He had been gone almost a week at Sebastian's house, and she hadn't known that he was going to come back with Sebastian. "You're back."

"Yeah." He was getting concerned after seeing everyone acting suspiciously. "What's happening?"

"You don't know?" she asked incredulously.

Michael shook his head. "It's something wrong?"

"Did you come with Sebastian?" she asked as she saw Brianna enter the training room.

"Yeah. He was acting weird too."

"Michael! I didn't know you were going to come back so quickly," Brianna said, looking at Fionna, suspicious of what she had told him.

"Yeah, all you are acting oddly. Care to tell me what's going on?"

Brianna sighed. "Nothing's happening. Why do you think-"

"I know when you are lying. Please don't play with me." Seeing that they didn't respond, he added, "I'm going to ask Selene. She must know." He knew she would be angry about being awoken by him, but almost the same thing happened when Marcus came.

He began to walk out of the room; Brianna followed him, and then Fionna did so too, with some hesitation. "Selene is not here. She is out."

"Oh, she is in a mission then?" Seeing that Fionna and Brianna looked at each other, he figured that something was bad and he began to feel his pulse quicken. "What happened to her?"

"I told you. She's out!" Brianna knew what he might have been thinking, but there was no reason to worry him.

He began to ascend the stairs toward Selene's room. "I know you're lying!" As he climbed the stairs he could feel the anguish spreading through him and a lump rising in his throat. "Something is wrong. I know it!"

Suddenly, voiced could be heard from the garage. "They're here!" one of Sophie's assistants screamed. Immediately they went toward the garage to find out what had happened. They were all surprised to see only Joseph, another vampire carrying Gabriel, and a lycan. Their appearances showed that they were badly hurt.

Sebastian and Marcus entered the garage. "Where are the others?" Sebastian asked.

"They didn't make it," Joseph said as he walked to the infirmary.

"Where the fuck is Selene?" Michael asked, blocking Joseph's way.

He kept walking, not in the mood for this. "We don't know. We scattered."

Michael looked at Sebastian and Marcus with hate and anger. "Where the hell is she?" seeing that they didn't answer, he looked to Brianna. "Tell me!" When he turned again to ask Sebastian and Marcus, they were no longer there. "Please tell me!" he said, feeling that he couldn't breathe because of the despair he was feeling. If he had to hurt someone to find out, he would do it.

Seeing that, Fionna answered, not caring what Brianna might have to say about it. "You remember the construction site we passed when we were out?" Michael looked at her and nodded. Seeing her look, he knew that Selene might still be there. Quickly he went to the board that held all the keys and got the ones of the bike he and Selene had stolen months ago.

"Be careful," he heard Fionna say, and he didn't care if it was going to be a trap for him. The only thing on his mind was the hope that Selene might be still alive.

PriNcEsS-oF-D-c

Thanks for the comment and obviously I'm not doing this for the reviews. :)

PeteG

Well, In the movie Selene is cold and I made her even colder because I thought that she wouldn't like to begin to develop feelings for Michael or for anyone hence she would avoid him, get angry and have fights for stupid reasons. The thing of the fight with the vampires was that Michael wasn't in capacities both physical and emotional to fight, he is tired, hadn't feed well, had been shot, etc… and emotional because he still is human and I don't think he would be very glad to kill someone, that's why he let them alive. He harmed them but not killed them.
Thanks for your comment, and I'm glad you are enjoying the history.

chuck-klee

I'm really glad for all the comments you did. I know you want them get together as soon as possible and they will… eventually. …But I'm still doubting about they having kids and taking over the world. ;)