Chapter 9- The meeting
Disclaimer- I don't own Underworld, any resemblance in the name of the characters is purely coincidental. (Lol)
Corvinus had left a few minutes ago, and Lucian sat on the chair near the windows. "So what is this whole meeting about?" Lucian asked spontaneously.
"Electing the leader for both the vampires and the lycans for the next 100 years." Gaius replied, intently fixing himself in front of a mirror.
"Really? And I am invited?" Lucian asked.
"Yeah, of course." Gaius paused, sniffing the air. "What is that smell?" Gaius asked, his nostrils detecting something nauseating in the room.
"What smell?"
"It's you! You smell awful!" Gaius exclaimed, turning to him and examining his cleanliness.
"So?" At this, Gaius walked over to Lucian's chair, and directed him to the bathroom.
"There's some soap." Gaius said, pointing to the soap on the sink. "And while you're in there... shave." He continued, examining his ragged appearance. Just as the door was about to close Gaius also threw a handful of clothes into the room. "And put these on when your done."
As Gaius heard the water turn on in the bathroom, he sat down and began to contemplate what would happen. He began to rub his temples as the gravity of it began to sink in. The funniest part was, he was tidying up the man that would probably beat him. Gaius smiled at this thought, and then noticed footsteps approaching his door. Without waiting for a knock, Gaius opened it to find Frederick on the other side.
"Hello Frederick." Gaius greeted.
"Gaius." Frederick answered.
"Please... come in." Gaius invited, motioning inside.
"I'm sorry, but this conversation must be a short one." Frederick replied.
"What's the news?" Gaius inquired.
"Corvinus sends word that he has exerted some influence with the Lycan delegates on your behalf. With the introduction of Lucian however, you will probably not win."
"I know." Gaius stated simply. Frederick sighed and continued.
"He is a warrior, what Corvinus wants now is peace. He fears under Lucian it may be harder to keep such a peace."
"That is for the Lycan delegates to decide." Gaius responded.
"Frederick!" Lucian greeted. Gaius turned in surprise, not having noticed that he had even left the bathroom. Lucian walked out of the bathroom, clean shaven and clean, and wearing the clothes Gaius gave him.
"Lucian... I presume?" Frederick asked quickly, startled at the interruption.
"You presume correctly. I don't think we've ever met." Lucian replied, outstretching his hand for a handshake.
"I'm Frederick." He answered, taking the hand and shaking it. "Shit!" He exclaimed, drawing his hand back from Lucian and clutching it.
"Oh, I'm so sorry!" I forgot to put down my razor. May I help you bandage that?" Lucian asked, putting the razor down onto the table.
"You forgot?" Frederick asked angrily, saying an explicative under his breath, Frederick walked away. Gaius shut the door and turned to Lucian.
"Forgot to drop your razor?" Gaius asked.
"Of course not." Lucian replied, heading to the table. "I'm not stupid."
"Then why did you." Gaius looked, noticing Lucian collecting the blood from the razor and carefully dropping it into a glass tube. "Wait. What are you doing?" Gaius asked.
"A hunch." Lucian replied without looking up. "That man... he is Corvinus' man?" Lucian asked. Gaius nodded and sat down as Lucian began to tell him his theory.
Peirce sat in an old abandoned building on the city coastline. From his vantage point, he could see the ship, and all of the outlying city in plain view. Surrounded by his best men, he watched the city for signs of organized movement.
"Sir. Movement on the coastline." One of Peirce's men shouted, handing the binoculars to him. Peirce checked where his subordinate pointed, to see a large group of men setting up camp on the coastline.
"Corvinus' men?" Peirce questioned, handing the binoculars to another Lycan.
"Looks like it to me." The other replied.
"Get me the cell phone." Peirce demanded, turning to the other Lycan. "Lucian is going to want to hear this." Peirce dialed the number quickly and brought it up to his mouth. He heard a ring of a cell phone downstairs, and hung up. He pulled out his pistol and advanced down the stairs cautiously.
"It's me, Peirce." Lucian said calmly.
"What are you doing here, sir? I feared the worst." Peirce inquired.
"Corvinus let me off as I wished, he is going to pick me up in 10 minutes." Lucian answered.
"Corvinus' men are all over the beach! It's too dangerous to go back in there." Peirce stated.
Lucian's smile disappeared and his tone grew more angry. "I'll do what I wish, Peirce." Lucian exclaimed, eying Peirce aggressively. Peirce looked away and Lucian smiled again.
"I'm sorry, sir." Peirce apologized, looking down to the ground.
"The troops will be your responsibility. As for the order." Lucian said, tossing a smile vial of blood to Peirce. "I will give it based on the results of this blood test." Peirce looked at it and smiled. "Have it analyzed. If it matches, call me on the cell phone. I'll give the order then."
"Do you think it will match?"
"Maybe." Lucian finished, turning to leave.
"They are concealed. We don't know how many there are." Peirce warned.
"Can you kill them if I give the order?" Lucian asked.
"Yes." He said, after a long pause he continued. "But it will be messy."
Crawling back out of bed, Selene began to redress. "Come back." Michael called in protest. Selene ignored him and began to put on the dress that lay on the chair next to the bed. She held the dress for a moment and examined it. It was elegant; but authoritative. Erika picked out a good dress, Selene thought. She put it on quickly, aware that she was going to be late. Michael had rolled out of bed by this time and was dressing as well. When Selene exited the room, Michael tagged behind, examining her from behind.
"You have no idea how beautiful that dress looks on you." Michael praised warmly. Selene turned and flashed him a quick smile.
A few moments later they reached the large room they had dined in the earlier night. "Michael your going to need to stay here. Only delegates are allowed past this point." Selene whispered.
"If something happen,." He replied locking gaze with her. "Just call my name." He waited a few seconds and kissed her on the cheek.
"Ok." Selene replied, heading into the meeting room. When she entered, she noticed that she was the last one to arrive. The other delegates turned to watch her as she entered. An aid directed her towards the only remaining seat, which was directly next to Octavian. She tried not to look at him in the dead silence that followed; but her eyes wandered back to him. She found him staring back towards her. She looked away, but he head already leaned up to her ear.
"Selene." He whispered. She shuddered at the sweet familiarity of his voice. "When this meeting is over I want to have a little chat, just the two of us." He continued.
"No." She said firmly. "After today I don't plan on seeing you again." The harsh tone of her voice made him recoil back to his chair. He recovered from this and leaned back towards her, whispering more earnestly.
"Don't you remember, Selene? What we shared?" Octavian asked, his voice shaky with pain.
"What we shared?" That bond was broken the day you severed it." She retorted angrily. By now all the delegates were watching.
"Viktor severed it! Since that day I have waited. I was faithful to you, Selene." He said first passionately, but growing more soft as he finished. He ran his fingers through her long black hair, causing her to turn to him. She stared directly into his eyes. The gaze seemed to last forever, until Octavian leaned in to kiss her. Their lips connected for a few seconds until Selene pushed him away.
"Think of that as the goodbye kiss." She muttered, turning to leave. She quickly strode towards the exit of the meeting room, and Octavian got up to follow her.
"Selene!" He shouted. She ignored him, walking at the same pace towards the exit. She was about to exit when he grabbed her and turned her around.
"Selene... I..." He was cut off by a sharp slap to the side of the face by Selene. He fell back, reeling from the stinging pain on his cheek. He watched her leave in silence.
Selene made her way to Michael and tugged on his sleeve. "We need to go." She urged, looking behind her.
"What's wrong?" Michael asked, rising out of the chair.
"I'll tell you later." She muttered. They both got up and headed towards the exit of the ship.
"Selene!" Frederick called after them, running to their side.
"What?" Selene asked irritably.
"I saw what you did in there... do you need a boat off of this ship?" Frederick asked. Selene turned and nodded appreciatively.
"That would be great. Thanks." She replied.
"Good, we'll take my boat." Frederick finished.
"Lead the way." Michael said.
The recent outburst created a buzz of conversation in the meeting hall. Octavian pulled himself from his shocked position and left without an explanation.
"Ladies and Gentlemen. If I could have your attention please." Corvinus began. At once the conversations in the room stopped and all attention focused on Corvinus. "As you probably already know, we have convened today to elect new leaders for both races. And the century long conflict that has accomplished so little, and cost so much will end." At these words, the delegates murmured their silent agreement.
Pausing to recognize this Corvinus continued. "When it comes to nominations and elections, I would ask you not to value strength over intelligence and reason. Are there any nominations so far?" A silence engulfed the room. The delegates had not expected nominations to come so early. A few seconds later, one of the delegates got up.
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