Disclaimer: Everything you recognise from the film series isn't mine.

Feedback: Always appreciated.

The Lone Wolf

It was almost surprisingly how easy it was for Selene to arrange for another night off the next full moon. It wasn't as though there was any obvious reason to be concerned about lycan activity in Budapest- Michael aside, she hadn't seen or heard of clear lycan activity in the city for the last few months- but when she had spent so long making sure she was on duty on these nights, Selene had to admit that she was slightly surprised nobody had noticed this break in her routine so far even if this would only be the third such night. She wasn't complaining about it, and she had made it clear to Kahn that she would be available as fast as possible if anything significant happened to any of her comrades, but so far only Kraven and Kahn had shown any sign that they noticed her taking time off, and Kahn only knew anything because she'd told him some of what she was doing in the first place.

Of course, even Kahn didn't know that she had taken the time to set up a camera outside Michael's apartment building with video-feed sent directly to a particular channel on the safehouse television, but that was just a necessary precaution. The hospital where he worked was already under constant observation that she had been able to tap at her leisure, but it hadn't been hard to use some of her accumulated pay to set up a new camera watching the apartment. If anything happened to Michael at his apartment or the hospital during the day, she could check the cameras and find out what she was looking for as soon as she had any reason to believe something was wrong.

She appreciated that putting this much effort into keeping track of Michael and keeping him secret wouldn't be practical long-term, but public lycan activity was relatively quiet right now. If she wasn't needed in the field, it made more sense for her to focus her efforts on helping Michael rather than hunting for something that might not even be out there. She would need more time to confirm that his last transformation hadn't just been a fluke event even if she couldn't explain what might have been different about that one time, but if Michael continued to show such progress once he transformed, she might still have a chance to persuade Kahn in particular to accept her new… friend… as an ally…

Friend…

Selene shied away from the idea that Michael might be anything more than that to her; she was helping him control his lycan side so that he could be a potential asset to their war, but the idea that she could be… that she might want to do anything more…

As she looked around the safehouse for something else to think about, Selene found herself smiling at this strange example of normality she'd made for herself in the last couple of months. Actually getting to the safehouse during the day had been tricky at first, but once Selene had taken the time to get her Jaguar's windows reinforced with tinted glass, it was relatively simple to make the trip. It was an optional 'upgrade' some of the coven had been making to their vehicles recently which Selene had just never bothered with earlier as she wasn't one of the vampires who regularly interacted with their human contacts, so once again, it was a feature that might strike others as odd, but would be easy to explain if anyone asked her why she'd done it.

For what had started out as just a convenient place to take Michael when he transformed, the safehouse had become surprisingly comfortable over the last few weeks. It still wasn't a permanent residence, with the only food there being a few raw steaks in the freezer for if Michael felt peckish while he was using it (Selene had taken care to never be present when he was eating in case he asked her why she wasn't doing the same), but the safehouse was building up a surprising range of creature comforts. Aside from practical additions such as a cupboard or two to serve as an offsite armoury, the original couch had been replaced with a more comfortable one, and a couple of smaller chairs had been added to either side in case either she or Michael wanted to sit somewhere different. The walls were still relatively bare, as neither she or Michael had a particular interest in decorating the place, but the television had built up a large collection of DVDs, both rented and purchased, as Michael unwittingly expanded Selene's knowledge of popular culture. Ever since they'd watched Titanic, it had become almost tradition for the two of them to meet up at least once a week and watch a DVD or two together, and Selene had been increasingly surprised to find how much she enjoyed most of them.

She wouldn't admit it to anyone else, but while she'd watched Titanic out of historical curiosity, some of the other films they'd watched since then each had their own strange appeal. She'd gone into The Mask expecting something slightly whacky considering what she'd heard about the main actor being a comedian, but she found the film to be musing and thought-provoking in its way. As cliché as it seemed, there was something to be said for the fundamental message that all a person needed was to have faith in themselves rather than rely on a more dramatic approach that wasn't truly them…

Of the films they watched later, Selene had never quite been able to engage with Spawn, as she found the villain's agenda to be rather basic; she could accept that the lycans killed because they were animals, but a sentient being making a plan to unleash a virus that could destroy the world just because he felt like it strained her credulity too far, even with the 'explanation' that he was a demon to justify it. By contrast, she had found herself cautiously intrigued by The Mask of Zorro and X-Men, as the villains in both cases had the more plausible agenda of personal power and protecting their species respectively, even as she could appreciate the heroes' determination to protect the innocent from their schemes in turn. Even Sleepy Hollow had managed to be an interesting mystery in its own way, with the Headless Horseman a supernatural threat that managed to operate on a relatively clear set of rules and limitations to make an unconventionally intriguing murder mystery.

The film that had surprised her the most was when Michael had produced a copy of Dracula, made almost a decade ago and starring Gary Oldman as the titular vampire. She had obviously heard about the original novel, but like most of the coven she had never paid more than peripheral attention to its various adaptations. It was sometimes amusing to consider how humanity could misinterpret what vampires were capable of, but Selene had never been especially bothered about it. She had been turned back when the only thing known about vampires were relatively generic folk-tales of demons who drank blood; she could vaguely recall there being rumours about the local lords that had employed her father, but back then she'd been focused more on spending time with her sister and her nieces…

Selene was startled to realise how easy it was to think back on that part of her life these days. It wasn't that it had stopped being painful to think back about her mortal life and the people she'd lost just before meeting Viktor, but talking about that part of her existence with Michael had given her the chance to remember something other than their deaths for a change. She'd never managed to actually ask Michael if he remembered what she'd told him about her family during his last transformation, but it had still been… nice… to actually talk about that part of her life with anyone.

Still, the Dracula film had been interesting in its way, even if she recognised that it was only one particular interpretation of the infamous count and vampires as a whole rather than a clear example of how humans saw her kind. She had been discreet about the extent of her interest at the time, but watching Dracula had inspired her to do some additional research into what humans thought of vampires in modern popular culture. Most of the coven were aware of some of the stranger myths about their kind- how anyone had developed the idea of 'vampires' as floating heads in some parts of the Middle East Selene had no idea- but it was amazing how many diverse interpretations existed in present popular culture. She hadn't dared suggest watching the Blade films in case Michael started to draw certain conclusions, but what she'd read about them suggested a disturbingly accurate interpretation of how vampires blended in to modern society, with human servants and exploring modern ways to feed in safety, minus the idea that her kind sought to rule humanity. She'd even found herself watching a few reruns of shows like Buffy the Vampire Slayer out of idle curiosity when she'd come to the safehouse on her own, although she identified more with the likes of Angel, where the vampire character struck an interesting balance between being a 'natural' predator and defending humans against the worst excesses of other vampires. The appearance of that werewolf character in the earlier seasons had been an interesting detail, but aside from Oz's transformed state looking more like some kind of demon monkey than an actual wolf, Selene had noted that his transformed state was actually easier to contain than a true lycan would have been.

When she'd looked up a few vampire-themed novels, she'd focused on anything else featuring Dracula, which had also led to a few interesting other vampire-themed novels as well. Salem's Lot had offered some interesting ideas even if the plot itself was relatively straightforward, and Anno Dracula had been a surprisingly engaging idea about how a vampire-ruled society might have worked in the Victorian era, even if she had to look up the names of various minor characters.

Selene had actually been surprised when a graphic novel trilogy she'd purchased featuring the superhero Batman becoming a vampire had turned out to be a surprisingly engaging read. She felt that the main character had been a bit too hard on himself about how he had broken his personal code against killing, considering how he never killed anyone who hadn't taken lives themselves first. Still, even if she disagreed about that detail, she could appreciate the sentiment behind the hero's horror at what he had become when he couldn't resist his thirst, especially when he started thinking about how he would eventually start attacking innocent people.

There were some flawed ideas out there, to be sure, but there were also some interesting ones; she'd have to find a way to suggest to Michael that they start watching a few more vampire-themed films that would avoid giving away her personal reasons for such interest-

The sound of a ringing phone broke off her train of thought.

"Michael?" Selene answered in surprise, even as she was relieved she'd taken the precaution to give Michael the number of her new burner phone. "What's wrong?"

"There's been an accident," Michael replied, his tone grim.

"Accident?"

"As the hospital," Michael explained. "There was a bus crash; we've got a mass of patients here, and… well, we're all working overtime to deal with the numbers…"

"Which means you can't get off?" Selene finished for him, her mind already considering the scale of the problem.

"I could probably get out of here if I had to- fake some kind of personal medical emergency or something, you know- but I need someone to help me get somewhere safe before… I mean…"

"I understand," Selene nodded grimly as she glanced out of the window, scanning the streets for a suitable vehicle.

Michael could probably hold onto himself for a few more hours, particularly after his lycan self was so relatively passive last month, but she'd rather not test him if the full moon triggered a transformation in the middle of a hospital full of vulnerable human targets.

If she couldn't get down to the hospital as fast as possible with a vehicle capable of getting Michael to safety relatively discreetly…

She wasn't sure if the humans or her fellow Death Dealers would be the first problem, but either way, she was on a potential time limit right now and she had to move fast.