Disclaimer: I don't own Underworld or anything publicly recognizable. Only the plot and the characters I created.
AN: Here's a super long chapter for all my loyal readers. It's one of my favorite chapters and I hope you like it, too :)
Watch Yourself
Chapter Sixteen
Selene stalked down the halls, her angry but determined footfalls echoing throughout the manor house. The dark vampiress had donned her tight-fitting dark leathers once again after so many years. The last time she had worn the garments that marked her as the Death Dealer Selene and the others had spent several days trekking through the countryside trying to reach the pack of lycans who had kidnapped Tanis for some reason or another.
This incident had led to his inevitable death and revival by her hand.
She scowled to herself, the memory only adding to her foul mood. Selene suspected that something similar would happen this night and the irony was not lost on her.
The vampire continued to the armory with her scowl deeply etched on her beautiful face. She threw the door open and only Michael looked up at her arrival.
His light brown eyes flickered quickly over her face and took in the angry set of her mouth and hard eyes. Immediately he dropped the knife he was holding and moved to her side. Michael brought her tense body against his and almost instantaneously she relaxed into him.
"I don't want to leave him again," she whispered pitifully against his chest as she wrapped her arms around him.
"I know," he whispered back, rubbing a soothing hand up and down her back. He felt the same way. Leaving their son each time was hard and painful, but nonetheless necessary in the long run despite how they felt about the matter.
Selene closed her eyes for a moment and fought to gain control of her emotions. Once she was sure her words weren't going to come out as sobs she spoke, albeit with a slight shake in her voice. "We leave him for several hours at a time and it hurts. I hate it. I hate leaving him and I hate the pain it brings me, Michael."
"I hate leaving Adam, too, Selene, but sometimes it's necessary so that we can make the world a slightly better place for him in the end." Selene nodded against his chest in agreement at his words.
After a beat they separated and returned to making their preparations. Selene immediately went to the racks and grabbed her dual automatic pistols and holstered them snuggly against her hips. She grabbed extra clips and throwing stars that doubled as grenades and tucked her silver plated hunting knife in its holster on her boot.
Behind her Michael was helping Eve and David fill the black duffle bag. They put different sorts of silver ammunition inside the bag, including silver grenades, extra guns and clips, and an assortment of silver blades.
Eve had a pistol strapped to her hip and a small blade tucked into her boot. If she stood next to her mother they would have looked identical with their dark hair and pale faces, dressed in black clothes and equipped similarly. Beside her David had his sawed off shotgun casually slung over his shoulder and his ulak blade tucked neatly into the inside pocket of his leather jacket.
Michael had opted to go without any traditional weapons, choosing to use his hybrid strength to aid him tonight as Eve was sure to eventually do the same at one point or another.
David zipped the duffle bag closed and shouldered it. "I think that's everything," he said, giving the armory one last cursory glance for anything that they may need. When he was satisfied that there was nothing else and no one had said anything otherwise he moved toward the door. Just as he was about to pull it open, the door burst open to reveal Tanis on the other side.
"Wait!" he cried out. "I want to go with you!"
Selene frowned at him.
He should have said something when they had returned the night before and started to plan.
"Why?" she asked, her voice cool.
Tanis swallowed noisily and wrung his hands nervously but met her cool gaze. "I-I want to be there when you rescue Erazebet."
Selene nodded sharply and walked passed him out of the armory.
OOOOOO
Selene, Michael, David, and Tanis silently trekked through the thick green foliage with only the light of the moon to guide them.
Since the historian had suddenly decided to take part in their hunting party Eve opted to stay back at the manor with Adam. Selene had obviously wanted to be the one to stay behind but the thrill of spilling more lycan blood also called to her. Knowing this about her mother had made the decision easy for Eve.
After walking for another five minutes the building came into sight. They paused ten feet away and when Selene gave the signal they stepped through the foliage with guns drawn. Selene kicked the door down with the heel of her boot and all hell broke loose.
Inside lycans jumped at the sudden intrusion and scrambled to grab their guns. Some immediately began to make the transformation from man to beast, ripping their clothes from heir bodies, upon catching sight of the vampires. Rapid gun fire and the snarling growls of the lycans rang loud and sharp through the air.
The Death Dealer raised her pistols in front of her and returned fire, shooting every beast that filled her line of vision full of hot silver. Every shot hit its target and blood spurted from the wounds and spattered every available surface. Behind her a fully transformed lycan leaped at Selene with teeth bared but Michael got there first and slashed at the beast with his claws, ripping him to shreds.
A low growl emitted from within him as another one made to off him. Michael went toe to claw with the monster, his eyes gleaming black as midnight in the low light. He snarled and brought his hands up to the beast's muzzle and forced the jaw apart. The lycan fell dead at his feet and another one took its place.
David slammed the heavy metal door shut behind him with a clang and dropped the bag of extra weapons down beside him before kicking it toward the center of the room they were in. He then pumped his shot gun and fired off round after round at the lycans that made to attack him. Blood oozed from the gunshot wounds and splattered the young vampire's clothes.
When the shotgun had no more to give he discarded it in favor of his ulak blade. He slashed the throats of the beasts that crossed his path with the outer edge of the blade before driving home the sharpened point into their skulls from beneath and effectively killed them.
Confidently, Tanis raised his own pistols and shot down and killed every lycan that crossed his path as he entered the fray. He kept a sharp eye for either Dominic or Tryn as he made his way toward the stairs that led above. A loud bang from behind him made the historian jump and look over his shoulder.
He watched as Selene wrapped her body around one of the filthy beasts and used their combined momentum to spin on the spot until she used the weight of her body to force it down to the ground. Fast as lightning she drew her knife from her boot, stabbed the lycan in the head, and subsequently took one of her throwing stars, released the blades, and threw it at the lycan that leaped at her. She executed a perfect somersault and landed out of the blasting zone just in time as another loud bang filled the air.
His eyes flickered to the other Death Dealer. A silver grenade was grasped in David's hand. He pulled the pin and quickly threw it away from him. A mist of silver filled the air and Michael, Selene, and David quickly regrouped as the beasts inhaled the flakes and slowly, but painfully, died.
Tanis looked away from the carnage and continued up the stairs. He caught Selene's eye and she gave him a slight nod. The historian nodded back and hurried up the remainder of the stairs and out of sight.
He was on his own now.
OOOOOO
Erazebet lied back on the bed and clutched the sheets tight to her body. Her eyes were closed and she focused on the only thing that kept her sane since Dominic had threatened to start the real torture. She counted each of her heartbeats and treated each one as precious as the last.
She didn't know which one was going to be her last.
The vampiress wasn't sure how many hours had passed but she was certain that at least twelve had gone by. She had long abandoned counting the number of heartbeats when she had realized that doing so only added to her paranoia and stress. At one point or another she had tried to escape through the only door but to no avail. It was locked and she wasn't strong enough to kick it down. Erazebet finally settled back on the bed and listened to the steady thumping of her heart in her chest.
The sound lulled her to a dreamless sleep soon after and what felt like mere minutes she was awoken by the clatter of gunfire and howling somewhere beyond the door. She stood from the bed and securely wrapped one of the sheets around her naked body and stood with her back pressed against the wall furthest from the door.
Her heart beat a frantic rhythm in her chest as she stared at the closed door. She wasn't ready to die. Not like this.
Suddenly she heard the telltale sound of the lock turning and then the door opened. Erazebet sucked in a sharp breath and closed her eyes, waiting.
"Erazebet," a voice whispered out to her timidly.
Cautiously she opened her eyes and was shocked to find Tanis standing in the doorway. He had a pistol raised in his hand and was dressed in dark clothes that made it seem as if he was part of the shadows surrounding him. The historian looked back into the room at her and she met his bright yellow eyes.
Tanis held out a hand toward her. "Erazebet," he whispered to her again.
Without a second thought she rushed across the room and gripped his arm. "What are you doing here, Andreas? You're the one they want," she hissed at him, her silver eyes beseeching him to turn around and leave and never look back.
"I came to rescue you," he told her, resting his hand at the base of the spine. Tanis then ushered her down the hall but they didn't get very far. Standing twenty feet away from them was the lycan with the crescent moon scar around his left eye.
He gave a twisted smile at the two vampires and cocked his head to the side. "Dominic will be pleased to see you, Tanis."
Tanis licked at his fangs nervously. "I wish I could say the same about him, Tryn. I really do. But these last thirty years or so have been much better since I haven't had to look at his face."
Tryn gave a sarcastic laugh at his words. "Oh, I'm going to have fun with you before I give you to Dominic," he hissed. And then he barreled down the hallway toward them. Tanis only had enough time to push Erazebet behind him before the lycan had hit him with all the power he had. The old historian stumbled backward only a couple steps before wrapping his arms around Tryn and bringing his knee up into the beast's stomach.
The lycan gasped in pain and Erazebet watched in openmouthed horror as the beast's eyes hardened in anger, becoming shining black jewels and then shifting to a deep cobalt blue. He suddenly pulled his arm back and sunk a blade that looked no less than fifteen inches long through Tanis's abdomen.
It went through and through.
Tanis stumbled back a few steps, eyes trained on the blade, before slowly pulling it from his body. He glared up at the no longer smug lycan and with a snarl he drove the blade into Tryn too fast for either Erazebet or the beast to comprehend what had happened until it was over. The lycan fell to the floor dead, his eyes rolled back in his head.
"Come on," Tanis said, encouraging Erazebet to walk down the hall with him.
She stared up at him wide-eyed as they moved down the hallway. Erazebet had never seen him like this. So brave. His seemingly new confidence actually made her aroused despite everything occurring around them at the moment.
The two vampires continued down the hall and descended the stairs until they met up with the rest of the hunting party.
Selene eyed Tanis clothes with a critical eye and took in the stab wound and the splattered blood on his clothes.
She was impressed.
"Tryn's dead," he told them, bending down to go through the bag of weapons. After a minute or so he came up with a full length dress. He handed it to Erazebet who took it gratefully and quickly changed.
"Good," Selene said. "Did you see any signs of Dominic?"
He shook his head. "No. Only Tryn."
"He'll come for us. Dominic was hell-bent on getting to Tanis and now he probably knows that we're connected to you, Selene," Erazebet told them.
Selene frowned at her words. She didn't want another incident like the one with Antigen forty years ago to happen again. Michael grasped her hand in his and they shared a long look. Neither of them wanted that.
"Then we'll be ready for him," David declared as he took in the solemn and angry expressions of the others.
Selene nodded once in agreement.
If that lycan so much as came after her family, she was going to make him wish that he never crossed paths with her.
They left for the manor soon after and unbeknownst to any of them Dominic had been watching the entire time.
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