Selene was having a weird week.

There was, of course, her near-death experience to start off the week. This experience had taking away her ability to move, speak, or even live.

Then there was the fact that when she finally had been able to start walking, she would get tired all of the sudden and almost collapse.

Then, to top it all off, some anonymous person had been leaving Selene flowers – carnations, her favorite.

Nobody knows that, she fretted, other than Michael. And he had sworn that it wasn't him. Which made sense, of course, seeing as how he would just give it to her.

So many things on my mind, she thought.

The highlight of her week had been the returning of her ability to speak, and her finally saying 'I love you' to Michael in front of Damien, Marc, and Derek. Other than that, her week was a horrible one.

She leaned back on the couch. She sighed. She had tried to walk around the mansion, then her legs had gave out on one of the staircases, and she had lied there for half an hour until she had enough strength to make it back to her quarters.

"You okay?" Damien asked, walking in through the door left open by Selene.

Selene shook her head. "I took another walk today…"

"Another one? How'd you get back by yourself?"

Selene stammered. "I-I just lied there. You know, until I got enough strength back in my legs." She was obviously embarrassed and didn't want to talk about the subject further.

"More flowers arrived today," Damien said, changing the subject.

Selene looked up. "Carnations?"

Damien nodded.

Selene groaned in frustration. "I don't understand this. Other than Michael, no one else knows—" She interrupted herself.

Damien was completely serious now. "What? What is it, Selene?" When Selene didn't answer, he pressed further. "Someone else knows—"

"—that I like carnations." Selene paused. "Leon," she muttered under her breath.

"What was that?"

"The guy who's been sending me flowers anonymously… his name is Leon."

"How do you know this?"

"That's what I wanna know," said Michael from the doorway. Selene and Damien looked up at the same time. "Any reason why this was left open?"

"I found it like that," Damien answered.

Michael gave Selene a puzzled look.

Sheepishly, she said, "I went for another walk today…"

"Fuck!" he screamed, startling Selene. "How many times have I told you not to go for walks by yourself? Huh?—How many?"

Selene didn't answer. Michael had been like this a lot lately. Michael was always in a bad mood ever since Selene had woken up. He lost his temper extremely quickly. Selene had learned to stay quiet when Michael went off on her, or it wouldn't solve anything.

"And now, now you're not even gonna answer me?"

Damien started to say something, but Selene shot him a look.

Michael slammed a table nearby, hard enough to create a crack on it. Damien jumped by his outburst, but Selene didn't.

"Are you done throwing your temper tantrum?" she asked quietly.

Michael sighed and nodded. They had played this scene quite a few times the last couple of days.

The first time had been when Selene had first received a mysterious bouquet of flowers, of her favorite flowers.

The second time had been the first time Selene had taken a walk by herself, and the third time had been an exact repeat of the second episode.

And this makes four.

"Who's Leon?" Damien asked softly.

Selene tried not to show her happiness that the subject had been changed, although it was to a subject she wasn't too fond of.

"Leon was a vampire who was, by vampiric standards, only 5 days older than me. By human measurements, he was 5 years older than me. His family was also killed by Lycans… although I'm not too sure of that, anymore." I'm not too sure of anything anymore… She paused, remembering that her family had not, in fact, been slaughtered by Lycans, but by her deceiving sire.

She continued, "We got along fine, since we were both changed around the same time. We inevitably became really close friends, and eventually, we became romantically involved." She looked over to Michael when she said this, but Michael seemed to maintain an apathetic expression. She saw in his eyes, however, a fire that burned with the blaze of envy… or anger, perhaps? Whatever it was, it was something Selene had never seen before within Michael, and while she was unwilling to admit it at the time, it scared her.

"He was my one true love in those 600 years before I met Michael. But sometime around that American Civil War, he decided he'd stopped caring for me." Bitterly, she said, "After 300 years, he decided he'd stopped." She continued in a less harsh tone, "So he left me a note just saying, 'Some loves are immortal and eternal like the souls that share it, but ours is not,' and took off to Australia. That was the last I'd heard of him. I didn't really pursue it."

Damien looked at her sympathetically, but Michael remained silent.

"You closed up your heart after that."

Selene nodded. "It was hard enough having to cope with the death of my whole family. But to deal with the fact that the only man I'd ever loved truly, madly, and deeply left me was just too much. It was easier to… to…"

"To shut yourself down," Michael finished. He had visibly calmed down from his temper tantrum earlier.

"Yes, At least, until I found the right person. Which I did." She smiled at Michael. He smiled back.

"I'm glad you did," Michael said at last. He reached out to touch her, but Selene pulled away in a subtle manner.

"I'm gonna go for a short walk," she declared, and walked out of the room, Damien following her.

She led him to the roof.

"What was that about?" he asked.

Selene sighed wearily. "You saw that tantrum he threw?"

"Yeah. It was over something small, too – what was up with him?"

"I don't know," she admitted. "He's been doing it ever since I woke up in the beginning of the week." She lowered her voice, as if someone might hear her. "He's been scaring me, Amie."

"How do you mean?'

"He's been losing his control over his temper lately. I don't know if you could tell, but if you looked at the table he slammed—"

"—it's been hit more than once," he finished. "Yeah, I noticed. But what's causing it?"

"I have a theory," she answered slowly. "But if I'm right, I don't want to be."

"Why, what is it?"

"I think that's he maturing."

There was a pause.

Finally, Damien said, "Wait, like Lycan-maturing?"

Selene nodded, unsure.

"So late? Lycans usually mature within their first two decades, maybe the third."

"Michael's not a Lycan."

"But vampires usually mature in their first few months."

"Michael's not a vampire, either," she pointed out. "He's both. So who's to say he won't mature in his first few centuries? All the signs point to it."

There was another silence.

'Maturing,' in the immortal sense, meant that an immortal gained more control over its immortal abilities. For some immortals, they went through a period of a loss of control over their tempers and rage. It was more dangerous among Lycans, since they had more raw power, and was also more common among them. The period usually only until they'd claimed their first victim, which had to be an immortal of the opposite race.

For example, if the immortal was a Lycan, the period ended after their first vampiric kill, and vice-versa.

"So would it be a vampire or Lycan?" Damien asked eventually.

"I would think vampire, only because he was a Lycan first."

"Then you're in trouble, aren't ya?"

Selene let this sink in. Until an immortal claimed its first victim, all members of the opposite race were in more danger than its own race. While the immortal's rage was out of control with either race, the chances of the immortal attacking its own race was less than it attacking its opposite.

And technically, I'm a vampire…

Derek came up to them on the roof, interrupting any further conversation.

"You have a visitor," he explained. "He says he knows you."

"Tell him it can wait. I'm not in the mood for visitors right now," she replied dismissively.

Derek locked eyes with her. "He's claiming that he the one who's been sending you flowers."

Now, Selene was interested. Her eyebrow rose. "Really?"

She raced downstairs to the security booth, which James had had the duty to watch over that night.

James pointed to the screen, "Here he is."

Selene took one look into the screen, and realized immediately that she had been right. "It's Leon," she said aloud.

A/N:

Yes, another new story. Second chapter should be coming soon.

Please tell me what you thought about the Prologue and the first chapter -- honesty is wanted!

I hope you guys enjoyed the last one I wrote. Hopefully this one lives up to expectations...

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