Chapter 16- Damned

I surmised the good work Selene had done on Viktor for the first time when he'd appeared out of nowhere in the large mausoleum where he, Markus and Amelia had been kept safe, and regretted that I'd had to forge my own death and keep my eyes closed when this had happened. I would have derived such pleasure to watch Viktor lose a half of his head. A large bandage wrapped around his forehead at a diagonal, with holes cut over his eyes so that he could see and over his mouth and nose so that he could breathe and speak. Selene had sliced the diagonal half of his head clean off, and obviously some time after I'd left the morgue, someone had bandaged the rest of his head back on and given him enough blood to regain his strength and heal the dismembered flesh, blood vessels, nerves and bone. I should have known he'd be strong enough to survive even an attack of that magnitude. Just as I was the strongest Lycan, he was the strongest vampire.

Maya's rounds went off in the background as Viktor and I circled one another in the wide open room. We did not use the modern day guns that everyone else was using though. We had learned to fight the old way, and this was how one or the other would go down. Our swords clanged against each other with a cold percussion immediately following the grating, high frequency scratch of unsheathing them. I had waited for a rematch against Viktor since eight hundred years prior, and as I hadn't defeated him then, and my ally hadn't succeeded either most recently, it was my turn again. I would be successful this time, for my sake, in Sonja's memory, for Maya's sake, and for the sake of all of the men and the brave vampire who fought together outside these foreboding walls. I whirred around mid-combat just in time to hear two agonized screams, and two vampire corpses on the ground; Maya had impeccable aim, and had hit them both dead on in the hearts. A small upward trail of smoke drifted from the holes in their chests, and the flesh immediately around the exit wounds disintegrated before my eyes as it burned from the UV bullets.

The mausoleum was not the most advantageous place to be fighting; there were no ledges I could jump down from, no nooks to hide in to surprise attack from or corner Viktor into, nor any holes to push him into. Everything I was doing was dependant on the utmost strength, agility and concentration. I turned around again when I could, only to see that Maya had disappeared. I tried to subdue my panic as I concentrated again on the fight. Wherever she was, either the remaining ten of the council had taken her, or she had run off to take them out herself. Either way, I could not hear her anymore, so I knew she was a good distance from me and Viktor now. I blocked two high-force blows of Viktor's sword with mine, and knocked him down, stepping on his leg and swiping at his chest as he blocked my blow. He thrust my sword back up at me and rose to his feet deftly, taking a low swing at my legs. I jumped over the blade and ran my sword into his at an "X" mid-air, backing him into a wall, but he kicked himself off of the wall and forced me down to the ground. I blocked a nearly fatal blow to the head and hooked my leg behind Viktor's, sending him flailing to the ground now. His sword slid behind me, in front of him, three feet away and he landed on top of me. He grabbed my neck with two forceful hands, and I grabbed his back, yanking him to the left where he hit the floor again on the side of his face. I lunged for him, but he knocked my sword out of my hand, and it spun across the floor and hit the wall, recoiling just far enough toward Viktor that he could grab it. I crawled backwards on my hands and feet swiftly and grabbed his sword, pointing it as his throat just as he was about to swing at me again, but he looped under and headed for my stomach, which I blocked as well. Suddenly I heard more gunshots in the hallway, and turned to see Maya surrounded by four corpses at her feet. She was a quick shot. I didn't know how many council members she had killed now, but I heard more rounds going off some distance from her, and she was out of my sight yet again.

"Your anger suits you," Viktor declared, a sadistic smile crossing his face.

"And your bandage suits you," I retorted, snarling under my breath. "You're now a victim to your own kind, just as my people were to me." I was fighting everything in me to not transform into a Lycan again, but I wanted to fight Viktor man to man. My previous transformation had only been long enough to get him to release Maya and allow her to escape to safety; or so I'd thought until the council members had shown up.

"That was your own choice" he shouted, "for the exchange of your safety and favor under me." He thrust my sword towards my throat.

"And what was the other, to be mistreated like them, and to be disposed of?" I used his sword to block his blow, and I knocked my sword out of his hands.

"No. That was the consequence of defiling my daughter!"

"And her death as well?"

"She also broke the covenant!"

I held my sword and his over my head, ready to strike, but from behind me came two more council members, and they yanked the swords from me.

"Lucian, LOOK OUT!" came Maya's panicked scream. I kicked them to the ground, and she shot them where they lay. She swayed slightly where she stood. "I killed eleven of them, but there's still one more lurking around somewhere. She fainted in the doorway, and hit her head hard against the arch as she collapsed to the ground and onto her stomach.

"Maya!" I shouted as Viktor headed straight for her with the two swords that he'd taken off of the dead council members' corpses. I climbed onto his back, causing him to hit the floor just inches from Maya's body, with the swords pointed at her.

"You will not take two lovers from me," I snarled.

"You are a fool to protect her," he spat.

Suddenly her eyes opened, and with two clenched fists, she rose to her knees and grabbed the two swords from him just in time to attack the last council member and knock the silver nitrate gun from his hand. He took off running like a coward, and Maya ran after him with a fierce look on her face that I had never seen before, and with a speed I didn't know she was capable of. Now Viktor stood, as did I. With Maya using our swords to attack the last council member, we had come to physical blows. Breathing heavily, fists clenched, I felt the power that I had only just discovered the last time I had fought with Viktor. Now I had rid my consciousness of any subservience to this monster, and I felt no guilt in triumphing over him. He struck me hard in the face with his balled fist, and I lunged forward to strike back. He grabbed my arm and attempted to twist it, but as he was about to I grabbed him by the back of his collar with my free hand and yanked him backward enough that I could use the counterforce to yank my arm free and punch him in the throat.

Viktor fell to the ground, sputtering, and grabbed me by the leg, causing me to collapse where I stood. Meanwhile I heard Maya returning, obviously having defeated the last council member. She leaned against the arch, and then she fainted again, her guns falling to the ground beside her. The blow she had taken when I'd knocked her to the ground had been quite severe, and I immediately regretted that I hadn't been more tactful in how I'd freed her from Viktor's grasp. He crawled over to me as I attempted to stumble to my feet, pulling me down again and punching my jaw multiple times before I was able to grab him around the neck and throttle him against the wall. Rubble crumbled around him, sending a cloud of dust through the room, and he rose to his feet and threw a piece of the wall at my head, which I ducked, and it crashed a few feet away from Maya. I growled, and my reaction set him off. He tried to throw another piece, now purposely at Maya, and I redirected the debris' landing, causing it to hurl into his stomach and pin him momentarily against the wall. Viktor pushed the large piece of the wall off of himself and ran towards me with his arms outstretched, intending to knock me over or strangle me, but I grabbed his arms and flipped him over my head onto the first piece of rubble that had nearly hit Maya, his middle back cracking in places. He groaned angrily, and with a sadistic look in his eyes, leaned over with his fangs bared as if he had the intent of biting her. I ran toward him at full speed and grabbed him from behind, tearing him away from Maya. We wrestled on the floor in an equal struggle of force for the next few minutes, our snarls filling the room.

From over in the doorway, I could hear Maya groan, struggling to regain consciousness, and I prayed that one of the Lycans would find her and take her somewhere safe.

As we wrestled around, Viktor taunted me.

"You do realize that I was right about how savage you truly are. That is why you and your kind were given your shackles."

"I only became savage when the time came to protect my people and my wife," I hissed. "When I transformed it was to protect her against the werewolves that attacked the human nobles. Then I transformed again when your cruelty towards the Lycans had gone too far."

"It was forbidden!"

"Well maybe if you had trusted us or at least me to use my Lycan for good then you wouldn't have forbidden it so strictly."

Maya's breathing was labored and rapid, but deep. She was coming to. Her groans of confusion gave way to steadier breathing as her lungs slowed down and the oxygen flowed through her body. Viktor was aware of the change as well, and his eyes widened and the same sadistic smile crossed his face as he pushed me aside and rose to his feet.

"So my child, Lucian wishes to make you immortal," he laughed menacingly under his breath. "Well I can offer you the rewarding side of immortality." He crept toward her, fangs bared once again, and I ran from behind him and jumped in front of him, pushing him backwards until he stumbled head first into the wall behind us, causing more rubble and debris to fall down. He growled, and kicked me down to the ground, his foot on my chest. I groaned, and tried to slam my fist on his leg to shift his weight and wriggle free, but it was of no use. Just then, Viktor unsheathed a silver dagger from his side and raised it over my heart.

From the stillness of the room came Maya's piercing scream.

"LUCIAN!"

A/N: I'm sorry that this chapter is pretty short, but it's still pretty action-packed, I would say. Tell me what you think!

I just discovered that I made a pretty bad boo-boo while watching "Underworld" for research purposes (it was quite recreational too!). Apparently the entire council was killed with Amelia. Oops. So this is a new council then, chosen in the state of emergency after Viktor was *supposedly for my story* killed by Selene. I will have to write that in and edit the first mention of them when Lucian says he knows who they are. I'll write it so that he knows how they dress. I have to edit minor little nit-picky things anyway so eventually I'll have all of my chapters fixed for tiny things I caught later on.

Please review! Thanks!