Disclaimer: Everything you recognise from the film series isn't mine.

Feedback: Always appreciated.

AN: After this, I just have one more chapter definitively planned before we get into more familiar territory; if anyone has anything they'd like to see from Michael and Selene before they get caught up in Lucian and Kraven's coup, let me know and I'll see what I can do.

The Lone Wolf

The moment that she had ended her call with Michael, Selene had immediately leapt into action. She had made it to the ground level in practically record time, and had spent the next few minutes searching the surrounding street until she found a suitably-sized car for her new self-appointed mission. The day was cloudy enough that she wouldn't have to worry about the sunlight on her way to the hospital, and while a part of her regretted whatever inconvenience she might be causing to whoever owned this car, she had to prioritise the risk to Michael and whoever he might attack if he was allowed to transform in public. A Range Rover wasn't exactly a perfect way to keep a lycan contained, but theoretically she should be able to get Michael into it and render him unconscious so that she would only have to worry about people seeing the large 'dog' in the back before she got him back to the safehouse.

I just hope I'm remembering those pressure point techniques correctly…

Hotwiring the car was at least something the coven constantly kept up-to-date on when training, considering the advantages of being able to drive to safety as fast as possible if they were caught away from the manor when the sun began to rise. Grateful that she'd brought her traditional leathers along just in case, Selene had pulled on her black leather gloves to avoid leaving fingerprints and made her way to the hospital as quickly as possible. She'd been forced to make a couple of detours when she encountered signs of what must have been the road accident that was causing Michael's current predicament, but after a few quick detours, she finally reached the same hospital where she'd first seen Michael all those long weeks ago.

When she parked the car a short distance from the familiar building, she found herself smiling at the thought of how her life had changed since she first saw Michael come out of this building, but that thought was pushed to the back of her mind as she scrambled out of the stolen car; the priority right now was to stop Michael hurting any innocent people.

Walking into the building, Selene fought down her instinctive thirst as the scent of blood from the recent accident hit her nostrils; she could fight down her urges as much as she wanted, but a part of her would always long for the taste of what she'd never allowed herself to indulge in.

As far as she could tell from the conversations taking place around her, a couple of tourist buses had swerved to try and avoid a group of motorcycles and had collided with each other even as the drivers put on the brakes. Most of the passengers didn't have anything more serious than broken limbs, but there were a few close calls that were requiring more urgent attention…

Considering her options, Selene decided to focus on checking the area for immediate arrivals; as much as Michael would want to help the new patients, he'd also recognise that he couldn't afford to get caught up in anything too intense this potentially late. She had to pause at a couple of points in order to stop herself being particularly tempted by the scent of fresh blood near a busy operating theatre, but eventually she made her way to the wards around the hospital's main entrance, where she saw Michael handing a patient on to another doctor before he moved over to stand in a corner. A quick glance was enough for Selene to confirm that he still looked human, although he was definitely paler than normal and smelled more keenly of sweat even at this distance. It wouldn't take an expert to see that Michael didn't look well, but so long as he was able to keep working most of his colleagues would assume he was just tired and stressed due to the busy environment.

But that just makes it more important I get him out before he loses that control…

"Ah Mr Corvin," she said, adding a slight accent to her voice as she walked up to him. "Did you forget?"

"For- Selene?" Michael turned to look at her in surprise; evidently the accent was more effective than she had anticipated.

"Yes, quite," Selene nodded at him, adjusting the emphasis so that it wouldn't sound quite as exaggerated. "It's your turn to assist in observing the samples, remember?"

"Turn to assist?" another voice said, Selene and Michael turning to see an older doctor walking towards them, the name 'Daburck' sewn onto his jacket as he looked curiously at Selene. "Mr Corvin, who is-?"

"Selene Veneau, Doctor Daburck," Selene said, handing Doctor Daburck the Ziodex ID card that she always kept with her in case of moments such as this. "I represent Ziodex Industries; Mr Corvin has been assisting us with a couple of research projects."

"Ziodex?" Doctor Daburck looked at her in surprise before he turned his attention to Michael. "Why didn't you tell me that you were working with Ziodex Industries?"

"It… didn't seem like that big a deal?" Michael shrugged, shooting Selene an anxious glance at this sudden turn of events. "I mean, it's just an occasional bit of work I do in my spare time; I didn't want you to think I was neglecting my studies here…"

"Plus, Mr Corvin signed confidentiality agreements prohibiting him from discussing his work for us in depth with anyone," Selene added with an apologetic smile. "I only bring it up now so that you understand why he has to depart on short notice."

"Depart?" Doctor Daburck looked at her in surprise. "This situation-"

"I am sure that you have many hands on deck to keep things under control here, but you must understand that Mr Corvin's work cannot go unmonitored," Selene explained. "I assure you that we will take further steps to ensure that you are kept in the loop and given advance notice of any future demands on Mr Corvin's time, but for the moment, it is important that he be allowed to accompany me out of this building."

"…Very well," Doctor Daburck nodded at her in understanding. "Like you said, we have enough people to deal with the remaining patients in this hospital, and so long as you can give me the guarantee that Mr Corvin will make suitable arrangements to prevent this from happening again in future…"

"No problem," Michael nodded, fighting down the urge to wince as he felt his body twinge; the sun must be going down now. "I… well, like I said, I've been doing pretty well with double duty so far, so I guess I was just worried you'd think I wasn't committed or something…"

"And with that resolved, we must be off," Selene said, firmly taking Michael's arm and heading down the nearest corridor. "Thank you for your time and understanding, Doctor Daburck."

Lost for anything better to do, Michael gave a parting wave to the older doctor as he was led down the corridor, keeping silent until he and Selene were in a relatively quieter corridor.

"OK," he looked curiously at her, "not that I'm not grateful for the save, but how the Hell do you have an ID for Ziodex?"

"Because I work there."

"What?" Michael could only stare at Selene in surprise at that declaration.

"Well, I don't work there directly, but it's basically one of the major front corporations my colleagues maintain," she explained as they walked briskly towards the exit; on one level, she recognised that she'd never given Michael a reason to think otherwise, but it still slightly hurt to realise he'd never given this matter particular thought. "You didn't think that my associates and I just made money killing lycans, did you?"

"…Guess I didn't exactly think about it," Michael conceded, looking apologetically at her. "Or if I did, I assumed you were… I dunno, some kind of bounty hunter…"

"A fair enough assumption," Selene conceded as they walked out of the hospital. "Anyway, we'd better get moving."

"Where-?" Michael began before his body bent over as the moonlight struck him directly.

"Hurry," Selene said, quickly wrapping her arm around Michael's shoulders, trying to ignore the fangs emerging from his mouth and the hair spreading across his arms. The streets behind the hospital were quiet enough that she was able to get Michael into the van before anyone who might have been passing by was in a position to clearly see what was happening to him, but Michael's muffled screams made it clear that he was fighting to keep quiet as the change threatened to overwhelm him.

Once again hoping that she was remembering these moves correctly, Selene quickly struck a few key pressure points in his neck, sighing in relief when Michael slumped to the floor of the van in an unconscious state. His body was still changing, but hopefully she'd taken him down early enough in the transformation that she wouldn't have to worry about him waking up before she got him to safety.

Selene was about to start driving back to the safehouse when she realised a potential problem. She'd been able to make her way to the hospital safely enough because the sun was still high enough in the sky that the Death Dealer patrols for the day wouldn't have been dispatched yet while the shade from the buildings protected her from the sun, but unless her usual attention to detail was failing her, her route back to the safehouse would cross at least one patrol route, and the sun was low enough that they would have started by the time she got to that area…

Grateful that she'd dedicated so much attention to memorising most of the relevant patrol routes of her fellows in case she ever needed help one night, Selene soon turned her attention towards Sandor's current patrol route; he was a strong fighter but relatively predictable in his routine. After a few moments, she had picked out the best route and driven away from the hospital, but remained tense for the first few minutes as she moved. Michael was being quiet enough in the back, and she could at least be fairly sure that he'd remain dazed for a few moments after he woke up which would give her time to put him back to 'sleep' before he endangered anyone, but the prospect of driving with a lycan through downtown Budapest was not one that she wanted to face for longer than she had to…

Scanning the streets, she nodded in approval as she reached the junction she'd identified as the best place to make her next move. She took a moment to make sure that Michael hadn't shown any sign of movement, and then carefully got out of the car and hurried up the side of the building. She preferred to go through buildings from the inside when possible, but right now scaling the outside would be a better option for taking her target by surprise.

As she climbed up the wall, Selene's mind shied away at the implications of how easy it had been for her to think of another Death Dealer as a 'target'; she was just making sure Sandor didn't do anything that would compromise a potential asset and keeping Michael safe until she was ready to tell anyone else about him.

Once she reached the top of the building, she crouched down beside a suitably-sized chimney and waited a few minutes until she heard the sound of hurried footsteps from further down the street. Glancing out from her hiding place, she gave herself an approving nod as she saw Sandor approaching, glad that her memory of the patrol schedules had been correct. She waited for a few moments until Sandor had reached the corner of the building she was currently on and paused to assess the street below; he shouldn't spot Michael in the van at the moment, particularly when no Death Eater had ever seen a transformed lycan using a car before now, but she just had to be sure…

Once she saw Sandor looking out at the street, Selene carefully sneaked out from behind the chimney and crept up towards him, until she was standing just behind her colleague. Grateful that this wasn't Rigel or Nathaniel- those two were experienced hunters, where Sander wasn't quite as good- Selene lashed out with her fingers to strike a key pressure point on his back.

As Sandor began to fall forward, Selene got to her feet and grabbed him before he could actually hit the ground, carefully setting him up against the nearest wall in a manner that would give him the impression that he had just slipped or dozed off for some reason. From what she knew of Sandor, the younger Death Dealer had a tendency to avoid admitting to his mistakes if he was sure that nobody had been hurt by them. If there was no sign of any actual lycan activity during his period of unconsciousness, Sandor would likely avoid bringing up his brief 'doze' out of embarrassment, and nobody would be any the wiser that anything had happened here in the first place.

"Sleep well," she said briefly to Sandor before she leapt off the roof and back down to the ground, walking briskly back towards the van, relieved to see no sign of activity through the windows. As she got back into the driver's seat, a quick glance was enough to confirm that Michael was still 'asleep before she started the car again, taking another moment to confirm her route before she resumed her drive towards the safehouse.

After another half hour of tense driving, constantly keeping her eyes peeled in case another Death Dealer chanced across her, she finally reached the apartment building. Climbing out of the van, she opened the rear door and pulled Michael out, carefully adjusting her efforts when she heard his claws start to drag along the seat coverings; the less trace she left of what she had been using this car for, the better.

Once Michael was out, she slung his arm over her shoulder and walked briskly towards the door, gradually making her way up the stairs towards the apartment. The lycan was difficult to carry, but she was strong enough that she could shoulder the weight easily enough, and his current state of unconsciousness made him easier to move…

She froze when she sensed movement near her feet, and looked down to see Michael's legs beginning to cautiously move alongside her own. Looking up at his face, she quickly confirmed that he hadn't fully regained consciousness yet, but he was at least alert enough to realise that he could help her by walking a bit. For a moment Selene nearly dropped him out of instinctive apprehension at the notion of being this close to a conscious lycan, but she swiftly realised that Michael wasn't showing any signs of actual hostility towards her…

It might just be the unique circumstances of Michael's own transformation influencing his current behaviour… but was it possible that other lycan could show that kind of control? After all, every lycan she'd ever faced in a transformed state had been reacting to the threat posed by her or another Death Dealer; maybe they were just automatically reacting to the immediate threat, rather than reverting to their 'default' psychology…

A brief snarl from Michael followed by a shake of his head prompted Selene to redouble her efforts to get her lycan companion up to the apartment safehouse. Whether his apparent calm was an example of her being wrong about lycans or he was just still recovering from his recent unconsciousness, it would be best to get him somewhere secure and contained just to be sure.

She spent the rest of the night sitting anxiously in the safehouse, watching from the window as Michael paced around the secure room, occasionally looking more thoughtfully at the one-way window she was sitting behind. She couldn't be sure what he was thinking right now, but there was definitely something more behind those eyes than she had expected to ever see from a lycan.

She just didn't know what that meant in terms of her larger conflict with the lycans; was Michael just a lucky case, or had she been misjudging an entire species… and what did that mean for the lycans who had killed her family?

The worst part was that she couldn't even tell herself this was all in the name of using Michael as some kind of double agent in the future. She didn't know how to define what she felt about him right now, but she was sure that this went beyond simple concern for an asset, no matter what she'd been telling herself earlier…