CHAPTER ELEVEN
Michael said little as they journeyed back. He did not seem conflicted, only introspective. The only sound was the click and drag of the windshield wipers. The sun slowly rose, painting the sky a steely gray.
Selene parked the car and touched Michael's hand. "Wait here," she told him. He leaned back in his seat and closed his eyes. He fell into a fitful sleep almost at once. When Selene returned with his cousin's coat and a pair of trousers, he jerked awake and pulled them on in the confines of the small car. He picked up his boots and followed Selene up the back stairs of the building. In the early morning hour, they encountered and startled no one with their disheveled appearance.
Back in their rooms, Michael picked up the quilt he had earlier discarded and threw it around his shoulders. He lay down on the floor and was instantly asleep. Worried, Selene crouched down and shook his shoulder. He did not wake and she shook him again. His eyes snapped open and he blinked several times. "What?" he mumbled. His mouth was dry and his tongue stuck to the roof of his mouth. His eyes fluttered and closed again. He tried to turn away but Selene caught and held him. He was very pale under all the grime.
"Michael!" Selene said urgently. "What is wrong with you?"
"Nothing. I'm too tired to find the bed and too dirty to sleep in it. Stop shaking me." He opened his eyes and fixed her with a bleary stare. "Just give me a couple hours." He pulled his shoulder from Selene's grasp and turned over, burrowing tighter into the quilt. His breathing deepened and he shuddered. He mumbled something unintelligible and went back to sleep. He did not stir for the next seven hours.
When he woke, Selene was sitting next to him. "Impressive," she remarked.
He yawned and smiled. "Residency," he said. "You learn to sleep anytime and anywhere." He looked around, still somewhat dazed. "What time is it?"
"A little past two. Hurry and clean up. I want to see Viktor's attorneys."
"I imagine they'll be surprised as hell to see us."
"What?"
"They probably don't conduct much business with vampires in the daytime. And they damned sure don't transact with lycans."
"You have a point. Hurry up. I've never been to the office. I'm not sure I can find it."
Michael rolled his eyes. "I'm driving. You drive too fast to read street signs or addresses."
Selene gave him one of her rare smiles and lightly punched his arm. He chuckled and reached up for her. She shook her head, "You reek."
Michael sat up and stared at the far wall. "Um, since you mention it…" He turned and let the quilt drop in illustration. There wasn't a portion of his skin not caked with dirt or crusted with blood.
Exasperated, Selene demanded, "Explain to me why we have to keep going over this!"
"Because I'm starting to feel like a bad cartoon. I'm David Kessler and the townspeople are telling me 'stay on the road, keep clear of the moors'. I'm going crazy. I have to understand this whole thing, square it in my head."
Selene crossed her arms and raised an eyebrow. "I have absolutely no idea what you're talking about but I'll give you ten minutes."
"OK, if you're immortal, how do you die?"
"We aren't magic, Michael. The laws of nature still apply, no one is immortal."
"Aren't magic! I saw a woman at Ordoghaz hanging from the ceiling!"
Selene smiled, "Well, there is that. But no one is immortal in the true sense of the word. Vampires have very heightened powers of regeneration. But that does have its limits."
"OK, so what did you do before Ziodex?"
She made a derisive sound. "Livestock. Only renegade vampires lived off of the blood of humanity. It was forbidden."
"I can't think that Viktor did that out of any lingering sense of morality."
"Hardly. It was self preservation. Our covens could never have co-existed alongside the inhabitants of this country for as long as we have if we used the populace for sustenance."
"Is that why you didn't?"
"I do have a conscience, no matter how it looks to you. I was trained to kill lycans, not humans."
"Do you know if lycans crave blood? Is that what happened to me last night?" he asked next.
"I don't know. All I really know about lycans is how to kill them. Everything else was a lie."
"Do you believe in God?"
"Yes," she said simply. "Do you? Why?"
"Because I want you to marry me, Selene."
She drew her breath in sharply. "No."
"No? No? You don't want to think about it at all?"
"No, I don't. Creatures like us weren't meant to play house."
"Good, because I don't want to play house. I want you to marry me."
"Michael, I will share your bed, where ever that may be. I will live with you for as long as you want, but I will not marry you. I definitely will not stand with you in some church. This conversation is ridiculous! Right now, we don't even know what will happen to us in the next hour."
"All the more reason to have at least one thing decided, isn't it? OK, no church. That was a stupid idea anyway. I wonder what the waiting period for a license is in Hungary."
"Do you want to be arrested on sight? If you show your passport and apply for a marriage license, you will be put in jail."
"I don't have a passport. Everything at my apartment was seized. I was thinking that Viktor's attorney can give us new identities. We can cross the border into Austria and get married there."
"No, we can't."
"No, we can't or no you won't?"
"I can't think about this right now. Please get up and get dressed. I don't know who Viktor's heir is or if I have access to any of the coven's assets. I have no legal identity, no passport, no means of support. That was all handled for me for centuries. I feel like I'm backed into a corner and I don't like it. So, as much as you mean to me, I cannot sit here and discuss commitments with you." With that, she rose and walked away.
