The Lycan stepped forward baring his changing teeth as they grew into points, his eyes shrouding in blue focusing in on Marcus. The tree other lycans all emerged from their hiding spots surrounding him.

They could sense his power but did not care; they had taken down a hybrid before.

Marcus stood sideways toward the ally wall, well aware of all their positions; the large forming leader was in front, a smaller younger lycan behind him, another sill up on the toppled fire escape and the other behind him. He had no other option but to fight them and he did not have much time before the sun would be fully up.

He gently lowered Selene down against the wall to lie in the shadows then removed his long coat and shirt and draped it over her to keep any light from hitting her. He flared up his tattooed chest standing over her in somewhat of a very protective manner and began to change form.

Marcus's form was different to what Michael's had been, he had been a vampyre first and not a lycan, he had a more of a dark sleek form. Unlike a lycan or a vampyre, each Hybrid's transformed appearance was unique and all looked different.

Marcus was a deep dark blue that almost glimmered deep purple. His structure grew, he was even bigger than before; his chest did not expand too much, but his back arched curving his spine like a lycan becoming bigger in size along with his arms. His hands became large claws, a set of two large black bone claws replacing the four figures and a smaller thumb claw, on each hand. His mouth filled with razor sharp teeth, his face was still alike yet his ears grew in length becoming pointed. His eyes were the one hybrid trait that was a common factor. They were glassy black to the point the lycans could almost see their own reflection in them.

They where thrown off a little by his appearance, but he was still just a hybrid despite his looks.

The first large lycan bared his teeth at him letting out a thunderous growl after changing his form completely. Marcus smirked and bared his own set of silver teeth back at him. The large lycan leapt at him and in the blink of an eye in one swing Marcus sent two long deep cuts up his abdomen before catching his ribcage and flung him up into the fire escape smashing into it and toppling the escape fully, knocking off the crouching lycan from above. The bodily remains of the lycans and the twisted metal came down at such a force upon lycan behind it, impaling him in several places.

The forth lycan snarled after witnessing his brethren taken down so quickly and easily in an instant, he knew he would have to watch his moves.

Marcus cracked his head from side to side cockily then rolled his shoulders stretching, his dark eyes fixed upon the young lycan. Well what he thought was a young lycan. Hesitantly but confidant he moved away from Selene and advanced toward the lycan who it turned out to be much older and stronger member of the pack, his small structure and youthful looks were deceiving. He was more of a challenge then Marcus had predicted, he leapt clean onto Marcus and began trying to maul him digging his teeth and claws in viciously.

Locked in combat like two feral wolves they duelled creating a mess of the alleyway walls which cracked and shattered at their forceful blows. Their fight caused the attention of a following being who had found himself lost in the maze of passages, to head their way.

Duncan freaked when he saw the naked twisted bodies entangled in the rusty metal like dumped string puppets.

"Owah! That's nasty…" he told himself putting his sleeve over his mouth in his disgust.

He had seen the stranger carry Selene down into the allies but had lost track of them. No matter what she had said or literately pulled on him he wasn't going to give up on her, it was not in him. She was pregnant and all alone, like he had been in much of his life, maybe in trouble and was sure to need his help. So he thought.

He winced at the thought she had gotten caught up in this mess, how she even got out off the bus or how the stranger got her out was beyond him. Surely these individuals had been victim of the quake in some strange sort of way he tried to reason logically.

Looking around he had not yet seen Marcus or his foe, they had rolled and tumbled further down the ally and with the racket they made he mistook them for a pair of rabid dogs.

"Where hell did they go?" he muttered only to hear a small feminine moan come from the black woollen cloak on the ground.

Duncan's curiosity always got the better of him. Trying to glimpse through the tangled metal and body parts without getting to close, he finally saw the figure lying under the coat with black raven hair showing out the edge. He stepped closer to the metal and tried find a way though without getting covered in blood or cutting himself

"Hold tight, help is on the way!" he said cheerfully finding a dumpster that he awkwardly climbed over to get enough high to jump down clear on the other side.

She began to moan a little louder as she started to stir

"Selene, is that you?" he said crouching beside her and lifted the coat.

Her skin immediately became angry red and inflamed. She was semiconscious; the burning pain was pulling her in and out of the ocean of slumber causing her eyes to change blue. The sky was now a light bright blue; it was only the shadows of the building that was stopping her from bursting into flames.

"Selene!" he said trying to wake her giving her shoulder a gentle shake

"Selene what's wrong? Wake up!" he said lifting her to cradle her upper body against his chest, innocently he was unaware it was the light causing the pain. She groaned more

"No, my baby," she managed to mumble before slipping back again.

"It's alright, I'll help ya! Is it a condition or something?" he said looking around for a way to get her out of the alleyway and to the main street. He could not get her though the mangled mess and did not want to take her near the fighting dogs.

He put his arms under her, with grunts and struggling he barely lifted her up into his arms like Marcus had done. He was not a large man by any means, he was medium height and incredibly scrawny.

He gritted his teeth as he struggled with her weight

"I got it, I got it!" he repeated though a strained held breath. He was only human after all, even his friends had always told him is bright personality had made up for a lack of physique.

He froze hearing the dog fight suddenly change, one began yelping and a sudden bone cracking crunch brought it all went to silence.

"You! Give her to me!" a loud voice boomed from behind Duncan giving him such a fright he almost dropped her. He turned to see one of the naked blood covered men he thought was dead on the fire escape, was now standing right behind him. He had been the lycan who was originally perched on top of the twisted metal and had merely been knocked out.

The thin blond naked man covered in blood and scars smiled sinisterly when he saw Selene moan as her skin became red and blistered slowly burning.

Duncan slowly took a step back, he was beginning to wonder if he had had some a knock to the head and things were not really making sense anymore. A man moving at inhuman speed and a naked blood covered man with sharp teeth that had been mangled and dead only minutes ago

"We, we, we are going to the hospital, are…mmm…maybe you could come too?" Duncan stammered nervously, he didn't like how this man was looking at him. He felt like he was a sheep being stared down at by a wolf, and he was more right than he knew.

"No hospital is going to help her." The lycan said and tipped his head looking at Duncan with his unnatural changing eyes

"Or you," he said with his voice distorting as his nose began to form into a snout.

Duncan was unable to move from the fear and sheer disbelief, wide eyed and watching in horror at a naked man jumping at him and changing into to some sort of creature in the process.

He finally let out a tiny squawk as it got within a hair length of Selene's head when Marcus' solid fist shot in and slammed into the side of the lycan's skull throwing him into the adjacent wall.

"It's the light" Marcus explained quickly throwing his coat over Selene.

"Don't let it touch her skin!" he bluntly ordered lifting the collar a little so Duncan could see the bubbling and burning begin to stop and Selene's moans of pain slow.

"This still will not be enough when the sun is fully up. It will kill her. Get her into the shelter of one of these buildings. I will come for the both of you soon." Marcus ordered him, he could see Duncan had no intention of harming her, or was or any threat to either of them making him useful.

Full with worry and now on a mission Duncan summoned all the strength he had to carry her off though the ally, until he came across an old rotting door. This part of the city had many abandoned buildings in an old decaying industrial quarter, simply waiting to be demolished.

Marcus easily took care of the remaining lycan with a piece of rusty pipe which soon ended up lodged in his throat almost completely severing off his head.

Duncan busted the door in with his seventh attempt of kicking the door in which Selene could have handled in one light hit. Panting out of breath, he once again scooped her up off the ground and finally got her into the darkness of what he thought could be some sort of mill. Most the windows were already boarded up leaving only a very few cracks of light showing through.

"There has to be a basement, or something lower, no light!" he told himself, now really struggling to carry her much further. Desperately he searched and squinted into the darkness shuffling around looking for the best place to hide her. His arms and back burned from exhaustion, his stubbornness would not let him give up. He backtracked past his footsteps on the floor, which had cleared the thick layer of dust exposing the edge of a hatch.

"Bingo!" He kicked the dust away till he found a metal ring, looped his foot into the handle and flung the trap door open exposing a staircase leading into black earth below. Carefully submerging into the black step by step, feeling with his feet and making sure not to slip on old stone steps, he made his way into the darkness. The room smelt so strong of earth and moisture and mould, he was unsure of how safe it would be or if there were any other hazards he could not see.

Readjusting her in his arms he grunted and carefully moved until he felt the floor level out.

"That's as far as I can go," he said quietly lowering her down onto the ground. He was surprised it was mostly dry and made of old hard wood, he had expected damp concrete. He reached into his pocket and rummaged for his Zippo lighter. With a quick flick he dimly lit up the small storage room, it was full of empty crates and piles of empty sacks scattered everywhere. His shoulders dropped and he let out a sigh of relief, there were no windows to be seen, not one. It also appeared no one had been here in years. The layer of dust was thick, thick enough to double as carpet. A soft moan followed by a gasp came from beneath Marcus's thick black trench coat.

"Selene!" he realised he had not uncovered her.

Placing the Zippo on the floor he pulled back the coat, her skin was still red and blistered, she was trembling badly and her chest convulsed as she made small rapid gasps for air. She was still only semi-conscious.

"It's alright now, no light here just breathe," he said soothingly and stroked her hair not wanting to touch her painful looking skin. He quickly left her side to gather all the empty sacks in the room then piled them into a make shift bed and covered them with Marcus's cleaner coat. He gently placed Selene upon them at an attempt to try and to make her more comfortable than the hard wood floor. She was hot to the touch but her gasping had eased. He crouched down and watcher her closely

"I dunno what to do." He said with pain in his voice.

"This is insane," he muttered to himself, why was he going along with this, she needed a hospital. A blister on her cheek melted back into her cheek and returned to red skin healing itself. His brows lifted as high as they would go; this is defiantly something else.

Marcus left the ally way and walked out into the street to look around as people had finally started to return in the morning light to look for lost ones, valuables or even to assess the damage. No one even looked at him once. He knew he had to make a quick visit, and then return to Selene as she will need his help.

Duncan had found a few old candles he lit for light, first checking firelight didn't burn her skin. He then soaked a strip of fabric ripped off the bottom of his t shirt with the cool water from a drain outside to dab onto her hot skin. Marcus had been longer than Duncan had expected and still had not arrived. Maybe he knew her, he thought watching the sleeping Selene. She was more settled and slept peacefully. It was natural for her body to sleep at this time as it is would be for a mortal at night. Duncan didn't have the heart to wake her anyway, the swelling on her skin was going down and he was content to just dab her skin to reduce the heat, he finally felt like he was helping her.

Why he was so compelled to be with her or help her? He was unsure, he just seemed to have a gut feeling something he never felt before, and he couldn't even take his eyes off her. It wasn't romantic or lustful, it was something… else.

A loud thud from above startled him and he heard footsteps march along the wood floorboards above, vibrating though the room. Marcus sniffed the air he could tell exactly where they were.

"It's only me," he said not to frighten Duncan. He knew Selene was asleep by the light calm pattern of her breathing and heartbeat. He could sense her blood loss and how weak she had become, on the verge of a vampyric comatose state.

Duncan eased when he heard Marcus voice. Marcus stepped down into the room closing the hatch behind him; Duncan saw a flash of something shiny in his hand.

Marcus knelt by Selene's side and examined her closely

"Any longer and she would be charcoal and ashes. That was too close." he said not taking his eyes of her.
"Are you her husband? Boyfriend? Or family?" Duncan asked curious.

"Neither," Marcus sharply replied unbuttoning the bottom of Selene's shirt to expose her bare swollen belly. It was bright red.

"How do you know her?" Duncan asked watching as Marcus gently examined her. He felt for any damage and checked how bad the burns were, or if the child was even moving. He sighed with relief

"The baby's fine, her however…" he said looking to her face and ignoring Duncan's questions.

Duncan watched his movements; he was gentle and seemed to worry for both hers and the baby's wellbeing.

"So yours then?" Duncan asked thinking he had figured it out.

"What?" Marcus said scrunching his brows together in a low frown.

"The baby? Is it yours? Are you the father?" Duncan nodded as he spoke to get the question across clearer

"No," He barked reaching for the shiny object he had held earlier next to him. He had sat it out of Duncan's view for good reason. It was a jar, full of a dark liquid. He popped opened the lid and took a mouthful. His thin lips appeared redder than before and he held liquid in his mouth without swallowing.

Duncan watched him gently sit Selene up a little and lean her in the cradle of his arm and shoulder.

He tipped her head back till his face was parallel to hers, cupped her cheek and jaw, and opened her mouth with his thumb. Bringing his face in close to hers and lining up his mouth with hers, he let the thick deep red liquid slowly began to drip from his mouth and into hers in small amounts so she wouldn't choke.

Duncan's eyes grew wider as it began to occur to him what he thought the liquid was, and before he could protest she instinctively began to hungrily swallow every drop, slowly pulling her out of slumber. Her red skin began to fade into its normal pale state healing rapidly.

Now with bright shiny wet crimson lips Marcus took another large mouthful of blood and began to drip more into her mouth at a higher volume, once again she guzzled all of it.

Duncan didn't move. Thoughts raged like a storm in his head, why should this be any stranger than what he's already seen? No, he thought, it was defiantly a head injury. Or maybe he's back on the bus unconscious and dreaming all of this? That would make sense surely. Maybe he's dead and this is some weird alternate reality? Either way he was not sure of what to say or do.

Marcus ignored his staring and focused completely on his task. He was now on the forth mouthful and was closer than the last three times, he was focused on not getting blood over her face, careful not to waste any or her accidently inhale it and choke.

Waking slowly and drowsily with their mouths barely apart, Selene thought Marcus was Michael in a state of half dream and half reality. In an intoxicated blood feeding haze upon awakening she joined their lips turning the feeding into a deep kiss. Instinctively she began affectionately weaving her arms around his neck to deepen the kiss, Marcus was in shock for a moment but couldn't help fall into its spell. The centuries of loneliness combined with her gentle touch, soft lips and the rich blood flavour making it an irresistible combination.

Selene finally opened her vampyric blue eyes, it was not Corvin scent, it was Corvinus, not Michael's lips but a strangers and she fully realised who she was kissing.