Hello my friends. Well here you are. Sorry about how long it took I was having writer's block, but finally I finished the chapter. Warning: some err, sensuality and slight seduction in this chapter, I was listening to Past the Point of No Return from the Phantom of the Opera and I had no idea how hard it influenced me until I read it over. Hope you like.
Chapter 4
Michael the Vampire
Selene listened again more carefully to assess Michael's state. Her fingers trembled with anxiety that increased when she noticed Michael's skin lacked all heat. He was as cold as a corpse and no movement came from him.
No flowing blood, no heartbeat.
She had forgotten all about her own injury knowing Michael could be--
Selene didn't want to even think it. But it was there that unfamiliar horrible feeling of dread despite all her training, all of her self-control to forgot her emotions in situations like this. It had been easy only a week ago.
Only a week ago someone she'd known dying did no large amount of damage to her heart, sometimes vampires she had respected called for a day in which Selene mourned. She'd felt something then and it was anger, even more hatred for lycans. Anger she was used to, thankful for it even, it kept her going.
She refused to be some vulnerable, silly female waiting to be hurt or killed and she refused to allow someone to make her feel vulnerable, she couldn't bear the loss.
Not again.
But Michael, somehow he was there inside her in a place she had long heavily guarded, somehow he had snuck inside and easily sabotaged all of her defenses, she couldn't deny that, not now with him this way.
It gripped her, that feeling, the way it had many, many years ago when she was only twenty-three and the massacre of her family left her dead inside and alone in the world.
God, it was happening again…
She'd been doing everything she possibly could to rouse him, three minutes later he still wasn't breathing.
"Michael, Michael, come on…" she tried once more shaking him with her free hand.
Please, please wake up…
Then her hybrid gave a tremble and she was so thankful when the soft thumping of his heart returned, it was so faint but there.
"Hold on, Michael."
They'd made it off of Hangman's Highway and Selene's wrecked Jaguar came to a sharp halt after following a flickering neon pink sign just off the highway. She knew it was risky but all she could think of was Michael's dire state and her own wound that was bleeding heavily now.
It was a shabby, slightly run-down motel that looked rather like an enormous conjoined log cabin. It looked completely desolate even for Selene's liking but it would have to do, she needed somewhere warm and quiet where she could access Michael properly.
Getting out of the car Selene ran inside almost making as much noise with her entrance as with the car's sudden stop.
"I need a room," Selene said, completely aware of her demanding tone and purposefully used it. She was caught off guard by the wave of dizziness that hit her, she had to grip the edge of the counter for balance.
The young man at the counter looked her up and down briefly, eyeballing her strange skin-tight black garb and matching lengthy black jacket then finally returned to her face.
After a moment's hesitation the man withdrew a sheet of paper from behind the counter to the desk sliding it toward her. "You'll need to fill this out."
Selene had been prepared for this but it made her no less angry as she slapped a bundle of bills onto the table. In a hard and deeply threatening tone Selene spoke: "Listen to me, there's a thousand dollars there and I am in quite a hurry. My friend outside is very ill and needs to rest badly, now unless you would like me to hold you personally responsible for the precious time his health depends on that you are wasting, give me a room."
The startled man gather the bills, practically throwing the keys to Selene and without missing a beat Selene caught them racing from the office.
"Cabin 42!" the man called out to her.
Selene immediately ran to the passenger side yanking the heavily damaged door open. Michael still lay slumped in the seat of the car but his eyes were open, though barely.
"Michael, Michael," she tried shaking him firmly.
He seemed to have gained back some sort of physical strength or mental willpower, he turned into Selene's arm as she felt the pulse of his neck with her fingertips, his nose pressing firmly into her skin and he inhaled her scent deeply. "Selene," he mumbled weakly.
Selene skin tingled pleasurably at Michael's primitive action and she brushed off the sensation with a mental growl at herself.
"Yes, I'm here," Michael heard her familiar calm and quiet tone answer back.
He wanted to smile but only half managed it, he was so tired, his body cried for sleep and release from the pain.
"I'm taking you inside, don't move."
"No, I-- can--"
As she suspected Michael tried his best to stand only managing to give a weak twitch of his body and Selene admired his attempt. She stilled him by easily slinging him over her shoulder and the bullet wound screamed in pain.
Selene carried him inside ignoring his drowsy protests thankful there was no one watching as the scene was definitely a strange one. It wasn't every day a woman as small as Selene carried a man over her shoulder as effortlessly as some women carried a purse. She did notice he was surprisingly light, even taking into consideration her preternatural strength and Michael's lean frame, he was a bit lighter than he should be.
Probably the stress of the week's events that he wasn't eating as well as he should.
Well Selene since when do you care about how much he's eating? Are you going to start taking his temperature every day too? she spat at herself.
She lay him down as easily as she could onto the bed before staggering to her knees under the pain of her aching wound.
Seemed once again Selene's presence had roused Michael's attention as he was staring at her more awake than minutes before but still there was a haziness that only the very ill possessed.
"You're hurt," he remarked weakly.
Selene ignored him for the moment and gripped the edge of a sofa chair near the bed for support as the wound cried for attention. She began tearing away at her suit with a small knife. She was having trouble working it due the hot sting of a cut in her arm. She finally made her way to the wound and in a few muffled grunts of pain, the determined vampiress extracted the bullet and the wound began to slowly heal.
Another long cut formed in her suit and even though Selene couldn't see the wound she could definitely feel it and smell it, sliding the blade's edge under the ruined suit she discarded the torn fabric. The crook of her right elbow was almost purpling inside her pale skin with blood wanting to burst forth. The blood spilled onto her skin in a short spurt and Selene ignored it.
She would deal with herself later Michael's state was much more serious than a mild cut and a bullet, she would definitely live.
When her blurred vision cleared she stood shakily returning to Michael's side, his eyes lazily followed her. She pushed aside his dark blonde locks to touch his forehead. She almost recoiled feeling as though her hand was on fire.
He gasped in pain, then his eyes rolled drifting closed.
"Michael can you hear me?" Selene called shaking him firmly.
When his eyes rolled up to meet her own Selene noticed his peaceful blue gaze was no longer there, replaced by a familiar artic blue.
The iciness of his gaze was jarring, consumed in his vampire's nature.
Selene stopped cold, knowing in his present state he was very unpredictable and she wished not to provoke him especially in a state of bloodlust.
A state in which a vampire was the most dangerous.
But Michael…
What had stirred the vampire within him?
Selene could see a flame of passion burn in those vampire eyes, a look she had never, ever seen Michael possess before and her stomach gave an odd flutter. She had only once seen another fix her in such need for complete possession, however Kraven's feelings had done nothing but make her fearful at first but that fear had gradually dissipated to annoyance and anger.
But this…this feeling was something so strong, so new, so…
Intoxicating?
Never that, Selene's mind declared indignantly.
Oh you are quite the liar Selene.
His eyes caught her arm in their hot-blooded gaze and he gave a soft purr that made Selene's eyes close involuntarily.
Michael's eyes became fixed on watching the blood trickle down Selene's pale flesh to form a small pool in the crook of her elbow.
The blood! Of course! The night was nearly over and Michael hadn't fed and now he was famished and beyond reason probably.
She had been afraid of this but had felt certain it was nothing she couldn't handle. She had her doubts now.
Selene swallowed down the lump in her throat and said evenly, "You'll need to stay awake just a bit longer. I will bring you blood and you should feel just fine."
Michael gave no sign of even hearing her, he was going to bite her and drink of her blood. She could see the lethal points of his fangs as he panted softly with need, his eyes half-lidded.
Selene's blood was pounding in her ears and tiny currents of pleasure rippled through her. She wanted to pull away but these feelings held her there.
She shook such reckless thoughts away and opened her mouth to shake Michael from his state. But before she could do as she intended or even conceal her injury from him, a searing, wet feeling came to her skin that took Selene by such surprise she gave a long hiss of discomfort that gradually changed to a tiny open mouthed gasp. She tried to pull away but Michael had held her firmly in an iron grip already the blood giving him strength, not to hurt but simply restrain.
Meek and innocent Michael had indeed become taken by a vampire's greater instinct: to feed.
His head lay nuzzled in her arm as his tongue set her skin aflame. Selene tugged once more half-heartedly, afraid of these sensations swimming through her as well as afraid of the reactions they had on her physical body. Her own artic gaze had surfaced to match Michael's own. For a few moments she had been boiling with indignation and fury wanting to strike him, but as quickly as it had come it was gone.
He tasted her in long, slow caresses, savoring the essence of her blood and it burned hotter and hotter causing her skin to tremble and Selene's fangs to extend to their fullest catching site of his throbbing pulse.
Despite her brain screaming of the danger she was in, the passion of him had easily subdued her once more and she no longer fought against hi, there was no point really, he wouldn't calm, his bloodlust wouldn't fade until he was full.
He pressed firm with just the tip of his tongue directly on the inside of her elbow and Selene nearly screamed as the sensation of pressure and heat was like a knife cutting into her. A light sheen of sweat began to form on her now hot skin, so pleasurable it hurt. Then he ran the flat of his tongue along the tiny rivulets that threatened to trickle onto the bed. When he returned to the wound he began to suckle gently almost lovingly pulling from her open vein all the nourishment he needed nursing alternately between long slow draws to short, fast ones.
She no longer feared the potential bite her hybrid could easily give her. The poison of the lycan strain could and definitely would kill her but he seemed not to desire marking her at the current moment and her heart couldn't help but take trust in that.
Selene bit back her moans, wanting desperately to gain back some of her self-control. Instead her efforts backfired as her fangs cut into her lower lip spilled her own blood into her mouth and she released a strangled whimper.
She hoped desperately when Michael returned to his senses he remembered nothing of this.
His grip loosened and his head fell away from her to collapse upon the bed. The vampire had retreated to allow Michael a night of deep slumber and Selene was glad to hear the thumping of his heart sounding in a clear, steady and powerful rhythm.
For a long while she sat beside him wondering what to do of these...emotions. What she had allowed to happen.
He makes you so weak, you were ready to die for him. Willingly you gave yourself, your very essence to a lycan.
No, a hybrid, she corrected herself.
As if that makes your actions any less foolish and lustful.
Michael shifted slightly in his sleep stretching one long leg out and rolling over onto his left side. His hair softly fell over the right side of his face hiding his handsome features from her.
He needed to feed, she argued.
No, you needed to feel, the voice argued back.
She lightly brushed away his hair since she dare not study him so intensely when he was awake, then he would have too many questions and she would only give him lies or nothing at all and each time she did she had to bury the bad feelings that accompanied it.
Selene stood, deciding she needed the distance to scold her foolish heart and allow the security of her mind to return, she would need it to survive.
And protect Michael until he is strong enough to protect you both.
She couldn't decided whether or not she wanted to fight that thought down. She let it be, for now.
Coming to the window Selene frowned, watching the rain fall as she held a motel towel to her side and a dry wash cloth to her arm. In a few hours it would be day then sleep would take her and quiet her mind.
She couldn't wait for day.