Thanks for your support. I'm glad that you like the story so far. As for your reviews, I'm thankful for each of them. Maybe I should only point out that I'm not a native speaker and have no beta reader. So, what you get to read is absolutely my responsibility, complete with ideas, mistakes, grammatical omissions etc. I have no one else but myself to blame for the bad as well as for the good.

I do have some ideas about the future chapters and certain relationships are going to evolve further. I don't know how many chapters I'm going to write until the end, but it will be at least 3-4 more. The outline of the story changes constantly and as so often, the story took its own path that I'm forced to follow. No matter the actual planning, sometimes things get 'out of hands' and I change the direction of the story.

As for Selene being suddenly so warm … I believe that already in UW Evolution she showed how much she cared for Michael (if you've read the book, in it she's even more human-like than in the movie) and in UW Awakening it was clear that she loved her daughter, even though she wasn't really prepared to accept that fact. And her words and facial expression as Eve's been taken care of as well she spoke to Eve made it completely clear how hurt she was to have apparently lost Michael. So yes, I believe that she could change so much as to become a good mate and mother, while maintaining her Death dealer attitude towards the others.


I'll Always Stay With You – Chapter 6

"Damn! We're out of blood!" Selene hissed as she opened the refrigerator in search of blood, facing just empty walls of the machine.

Michael, following her from their room to the kitchen, hung his head. "I'm sorry. I took the last bag few minutes ago. I had to ingest it to heal properly."

Selene turned to look at her mate and her eyes softened. She stepped to him and put her hand on his cheek. "I don't blame you Michael and neither should you feel responsible. You needed it to regenerate. We'll just have to go out again to find some supplies."

"Maybe we should try to actually reach our destination this time?" Michael asked with a small sly grin tugging at his lips.

"Absolutely! No more marriage proposals, no more snowball fights and no more lycan killing." Selene answered before adding. "Well, I can't guarantee for the latter, but for the former …" Her face showed an expression of pure determination, however, her eyes flashed at her mate warmly.

"We should get out immediately before the break of the day. There'll be too much people in the hospital during daytime." Michael nodded towards the big clock, showing that it was two in the night.

Selene nodded, but then her eyes scanned her lover. "You should get changed."

"You too." Michael looked at Selene with burning eyes. They slowly swept from her head to her toes.

"Do you like what you see?" Mischievousness was something Selene discovered not so long ago, but she already knew how to implement it perfectly when she wanted to impress her lover.

Michael gulped before answering. "Absolutely!" The sight of Selene in a tight yellow tank top with spaghetti halters and matching pajama bottoms was enough to take his breath away. So untypical Selene but at the same time so absolutely Selene … the narrow sliver of her pale skin between the top and her pants only curbed his imagination higher.

"Get over it! Now it's not the time to drool." Selene knew perfectly well how her outfit influenced the man she loved with all her heart. But she also knew that should they fall victim to their desires, they wouldn't be going out anytime soon. And they definitely had to go, having no blood left.

"Right!" Michael shook out of his reveries and grinned. "But after we come back …" He left the end unspoken, knowing exactly that Selene understood him perfectly.

"I'll tell Eve if she's awake. Otherwise she'll be worried." Selene decided that it was enough of fooling around and ogling and turned towards the stairs to go change and inform her daughter about their intentions to go out again. Somehow she had a feeling that Eve wouldn't be the happiest person upon hearing that her parents intended to go out again after they have returned few hours ago with so beaten up Michael.

XXXXXXXXXX

About one hour later, they parked in an alley behind a small hospital building in the nearby town. Selene, who adamantly refused Michael's offer to do the driving, leaned over the steering wheel and looked towards the building before turning to Michael. "We should go."

Michael smiled at her and shook his head. "No, Selene, you'll stay here and that's final. I'm going in and you'll wait for me here."

Selene's eyebrows hiked up her forehead before she answered sarcastically. "And why would I stay here, Michael? Do you think that I'm not experienced enough to find where they store the blood? Or?"

Michael sighed before clearing why he requested her to stay in the car. "No, nothing of that kind Selene. It's just that you are …" His eyes wondered along her body, clad in her favorite tight black leather suit, clearly shoving the body attributes she possessed. " … probably not exactly in the best suitable attire to enter the hospital." He paused again, but before he could continue, Selene cut him off.

"Why? Is something wrong with my attire?" A deep furrow formed between her eyebrows and after taking a quick check of herself, she looked at Michael with starting anger in her brown eyes.

"No, nothing's wrong. It's just …" Michael still struggled with right words before he found them. "You're too damn sexy and striking not to be noticed the moment you'd walk through that door. God damn it, Selene … you're the sexiest creature that ever walked this planet and you think that no one would notice you?"

It took a few seconds for Selene to finally comprehend the meaning of her mate's words. Her face lost the strained and little angry expression and she smiled at him with a hint of pride. "You're afraid they would notice that I'm a vampire?"

"Not exactly, but you'd probably become the center of everyone's attention and it could raise some suspicions." Michael was happy that she finally understood what he wanted to say. "Why did you decide to wear this specific attire? Have you forgotten that the humans know about us and that someone so striking as you would draw attention to themselves?"

Selene had to think for a second. Really, why did I choose this jumpsuit? I didn't wear it since I saved Eve from Antigen. Why? Then it shot through her mind. Because I wanted to look sexy for Michael! She almost gasped in surprise, realizing that she subconsciously wanted to seduce her already seduced mate again. "Maybe … maybe to look good for you." A barely noticeable note of sheepishness in her voice had however been easily detected by Michael.

He suddenly leaned over and kissed her. "We'll make use of that later. Now, please, wait here while I'll get some blood."

Selene finally had nothing to object so she just nodded and watched her man leaving the car and casually strolling towards the hospital entrance. Damn he is really hot! The thought surprised her so much that her eyes widened uncontrollably before she got her emotions under control again and shook her head resolutely. Pull yourself together Selene! You're not a school girl! You're a living relic, more than six centuries old vampire! She shook her head in dismay, grinning barely perceptible over her thoughts and leaned back into her seat to wait for Michael to return. However, all her senses were on high alert. She didn't trust the calm.

XXXXXXXXXX

Michael waited for a second in the shadows to see if there were any people in the entrance hall of the hospital. He noticed the receptionist and a night nurse, sitting at the reception counter and chatting. "Damn! I won't be able to get in unseen." He thought for a second how he could enter the hospital without raising too much attention and suddenly an idea popped out in his mind.

Entering the hospital, Michael gave away clear impression that he urgently needed to go to the toilet. He checked before and noticed that the hospital had only this entrance so he was bound to get in through it. So he decided to try this approach. There were no toilets in the reception hall and he only hoped there'd be restrooms deeper in the building, close to the emergency room.

The receptionist and the night nurse raised their heads and looked at the stranger who just entered the hospital with unhidden interest. The nurse, a woman in her late twenties, even smiled slightly at the look of the ruggedly handsome stranger. "Guten Abend. Was kann ich für Sie tun?" (Good evening. How can I help you)

Michael now already understood some German, courtesy to Selene's insistence that he should learn the language, were they to stay longer in the country, so he understood what she had been asking him. He thought for a moment before formulating an answer. "Es tut mir leid, aber ich muss die Toalete benutzen." (I'm sorry, but I have to use the restrooms.) His thick accent immediately revealed to the nurse that he was a stranger.

She smiled at him and continued in English, albeit as much accented as Michael's German had been. "Of course. They are there." She pointed towards the right corridor.

Michael noticed that the emergency room was located in the same wing as the nurse showed him and he smiled at her thankfully. "Thank you very much. I will only be a second." He nodded to her and started towards the toilets.

The nurse's eyes followed him until he entered the restrooms and then she turned away, completely missing that the door opened immediately thereafter and that Michael tiptoed further in the direction of the trauma.

Michael grinned at ease with which he fooled the friendly nurse and quickly found the emergency room. He carefully checked and grinned satisfied when he noticed that there were no personnel in the room. The nurse is probably on duty and the doctor must be sleeping somewhere. Nice! In few moments he found the refrigerator, but there were only few packs of blood. In fact, he could count only fifteen of them. "Damn!" He silently cursed while he took the packets. He stopped for a second and then returned three packs back. Who knows, maybe someone will need it tonight and I wouldn't want to be the one, responsible for their death. Maybe they'll be lucky and have the same blood type as I left here.

He hid the packets under his coat and carefully returned to the toilets. He sighed quietly in relief as he saw that neither the nurse nor the receptionist noticed his little detour. He opened and normally closed the door of the toilet, causing them both to look into his direction.

He strolled with a smile towards them and as he reached them, he nodded to the nurse. "Thank you very much, madam. You just saved my life."

"I'm not sure if it's that important, but I'm glad to have been able to help you." The nurse smiled back at him and her eyes followed the young man as he exited the building.

XXXXXXXXXX

"Did you get any?" Selene quietly asked Michael as he entered the car, while already pulling away from her parking.

Michael sighed and pulled the dozen bags from under his coat. "They only got this much. We'll have to be resourceful if we don't want to get hungry very soon." He carefully placed the bags on the back seat, what proved to be a demanding task, considering the fact that Selene was already driving like in her best days in Budapest. "Could you slow down a bit Selene, please? We wouldn't want to draw attention, would we?"

Selene grumbled something but slowed down significantly. She remained silent for a second before remembering something. "There is a slaughterhouse somewhere in this town. Maybe they've got some stashed blood."

"Sure, that could be a solution." Michael nodded.

"But I have to warn you that animal blood is disgusting. It serves its purpose … keeping us alive, but that's about the only positive aspect." Selene's voice sounded vaguely amused and as Michael looked at her, he could see a slight smile on her lips.

"Better disgusting than starving."

"Selene shook her head amused. "We'll talk when you've tasted it."

XXXXXXXXXX

Almost three hours later they were on their way back home. They managed to break in in the slaughterhouse and found quite a lot of animal blood in the freezer. They took a large plastic container of it, even though Michael wanted to take more, but Selene advised him not to be greedy. She admonished him that he should try it first before he would decide to take more of it.

This time Michael insisted he'd drive. Even though Selene drove very controlled now, she was still a hazard for other drivers and for herself. She mumbled something about him being a male chauvinist, but he knew that she didn't really mean it, so he calmed her with a gentle kiss.

While Michael drove towards their home, Selene decided that it was late or early enough to call detective Sebastian. Even though Michael said he'd do it, she had nothing better to do while being driven back home, so she decided to take care of it.

It took Sebastian quite long before he answered his phone. "It's Selene. I hope I didn't wake you up? I did? Sorry." The excuse was just like Selene. Crisp, to the point and spoken in a very flat voice, voice that made someone wonder if she actually meant the apology seriously or not.

"Listen. We've been attacked by few lycan earlier. Do you have any information about lycan activities in Austria?" She didn't want to, but she had to reveal to him that they were in Austria, so she added with a cold voice. "And you should keep this location secret from anyone, OK?" Her request sounded more like an order than anything else.

Sebastian obviously confirmed and asked her to wait a little, so she just sat there with a phone close to her ear, looking at Michael, who drove according to the traffic regulations.

Michael turned to look at her for a second and saw a deep frown on her face, even though she looked directly at him. It was clear that her thoughts were somewhere else, not with him. He gave her an encouraging smile and turned his attention back to driving.

Why doesn't he take this seriously? Or does he? Selene didn't know what to think, but her train of thoughts was luckily interrupted by detective Sebastian, who found the information she wanted. For few seconds she listened to him before answering. "Are you sure?" He obviously confirmed, so she nodded sharply. "Thank you for your information. We'll keep in touch occasionally."

While disconnecting the connection, she looked at Michael, who was now turning his head towards her curiously. "He checked and there have never been any known lycan activities in Austria. Only separate sightings of lycans in Vienna have been recorded, but no bigger numbers or any dens."

"Is that good or bad?" Michael looked lost in his thoughts.

"I would have to have more info …"

"It was a rhetorical question, Selene." Michael interrupted his lover before she started her explanation. "We will have to gather more information, but according to the data we have now, I'd say that they were just passing through and were not targeting us specifically. We just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time." He paused before adding with a smirk. "Or they happened to make that mistake. After all ... we're alive and they're not."

Selene frowned slightly at him, but had to agree with his reasoning. She shared his attitude and even felt slightly relieved that they were obviously just random targets of the beasts. Then she remembered that they left the bodies of dead lycans in the forest. "Maybe we should return there where I killed those beasts and bury them."

"Seriously?" Michael raised an eyebrow at her. "You never cared about others finding the bodies of your kills before."

"I have been different then. Here and now … considering the fact that the humans know about us … if we want to stay here for a while longer, I believe we should not allow humans to find them." Selene was trying to explain her idea, even though even she wasn't quite sure if it was necessary or not.

Michael shrugged. "We can try. We're almost there."

XXXXXXXXXX

They parked on the same small parking space as before and made their way towards the position where Selene made short process with the three lycans. But before they reached the spot, Michael stopped dead in his tracks and grabbed Selene's arm. "Stop!"

Selene frowned in annoyance that Michael's senses were better than hers but stopped nevertheless.

"Someone took care of our issue." Michael grinned at her after listening very carefully for few seconds. Then he tiptoed few meters and peeked around a large tree towards their destination. He slowly motioned Selene to join him and as she did, she almost gasped in surprise over what she saw. There was a pack of white wolves, feasting on the bodies of the three dead lycans.

The leader of the pack, a big wolf, raised his head and looked towards them, kept his eyes on Selene for few moments before lowering his snout and continuing feasting on the free prey.

"Are they …" Selene whispered quietly, remembering the family of wolves, they encountered not so long ago during their walk in the woods.

"Yes, they're the same." Michael whispered back and smiled. "I bet they knew what happened and decided to do some useful work while filling their stomachs at the same time. I'm sure that the alpha knows exactly who we are and that we did this."

"Then they're smarter than some lycans." Selene snorted quietly.

"I can't deny that fact. You're probably right." Michael suppressed a grin and turned back. "Now let's go home. They solved our little problem."

XXXXXXXXXX

As soon as they returned home, they were met by angry looking Eve, standing in the middle of the room, impatiently tapping her foot, her arms crossed on her chest and a prominent pout on her lips. "I thought we had an agreement!"

"Didn't you tell her?" Michael looked at Selene with big eyes.

Selene felt a little cornered but tried not to show it. She answered with a shrug. "She was asleep and I didn't want to wake her up. So I left her a note."

"Note? What note?" Eve uncrossed her arms and looked genuinely surprised.

"On your night stand."

"Wait a minute!" As soon as she spoke the words, Eve turned and stormed towards her room.

"Did you really leave her a note?" Michael frowned at Selene.

Indignantly, clearly annoyed that he suspected her not telling the truth, Selene answered harsher than intended. "Of course I did! Are you doubting me?"

Michael realized in an instant that it was the wrong thing to say and tried to apologize. "Of course not Selene. I just blurted without thinking. I would never doubt you, you should know that by now."

Eve was already storming down the stairs with a piece of paper in her hand, face red from embarrassment. "I'm sorry mom, I didn't see it before."

"No problem. At least you know now." It came out bitterer than she intended, but it was already out. In the next moment Selene giggled quietly. Eve and Michael looked at her in amazement, so she explained. "I just verbally abused your father for saying something before thinking it over and now I did the same. Sorry, I didn't mean it like that."

Eve grinned back and nodded. "I know, mom." Then she remembered. "Did you get any blood?"

Michael now produced the dozen bags of blood from the hospital and a large closed vessel of blood from the slaughterhouse. It already thawed and was now splashing against the walls of the plastic container.

"What's that?" Eve's face showed her disgust over what she saw.

"Animal blood. There were only dozen bags in the hospital, so we had to find another source too. Your father insisted on it." Selene answered slyly while casting Michael a sideway glance and winking at Eve.

Michael looked at his mate innocently. "It will have to do for the time being. Actually … I just might try it." He strolled into the kitchen to put the blood bags into the refrigerator and poured some blood from the container into a glass before positioning the container in the fridge too.

Eve and Selene shared a look. Eve looked disgusted, while Selene grinned knowingly. She expected a certain reaction from her lover and already enjoyed the face she would very soon get to see. Her lips curled upwards in anticipation.

As soon as Michael took a sip from the glass, he spit it all out into the sink and made a face. "This is disgusting!" He quickly opened the water tap to wash away the remaining taste of animal blood in his mouth.

Selene tried to rein her amusement, but after few seconds, she exploded in laughter, joined by her daughter. For few moments they laughed aloud at Michael who was still trying to wash out the taste.

"I told you Michael, but you wouldn't listen to me." Selene mocked her mate and stepped over to him. She took the glass from his hand and put it in the microwave oven. "It's a bit better if you warm it up." She pressed a button and the oven began working.

Michael was now over the shock and looked at the glass in the oven. "I definitely didn't expect it to be that bad. I believed you Selene, but the actual taste is horrifying." He shook his head before averting his gaze to her. "You actually drank such blood?"

Selene leaned against the counter and looked at him with a small smile. "Many centuries ago we didn't have the comfort of cloned blood. We were dependant on animal blood. However, I never got used to it completely and after we were in position to clone human blood …" She left the end of the sentence unspoken and shrugged.

A series of beeps from the microwave oven signaled that the warming cycle had been finished. Michael opened the door, reached for the glass and eyed it suspiciously, as if debating with himself should he try it or not.

Eve, who was silently following this discussion, now remembered that her father wanted to call detective Sebastian today. "Dad! Did you call Sebastian about those lycans yet?"

Instead of Michael who was still deciding if he should give the warmed blood another try or not, Selene answered her daughter's question. "I called him and he told me that they must have been just passing through. At least he couldn't find any evidence of lycan activity in Austria."

"So we won't have to move?" Eve sounded more hopeful than she wanted too. But she really liked this house and wouldn't want to move if it wasn't absolutely necessary.

"No, for the time being we'll stay here. But your father will have to resolve this situation with his friend in the village." Selene turned and gave Michael a sideway glance.

Meanwhile Michael decided that he would try the blood now and took a sip. He still made a face, but as Selene turned to him, he quickly caught on her train of thoughts. "I'll deal with it very soon. But, as I already told you, I don't believe that he'd have any bad intentions." Then he eyed the glass with investigating look. "This is actually conditionally acceptable."

Selene grinned at him. "I told you. It will keep us alive, but that's all that there is. Maybe you'll have to learn to live on a diet." Her voice was now unmistakably dripping with sarcasm.

"Oh, I've had it worse before. It's still better than to starve, right?"

Selene nodded. "Actually yes."

TBC