FIC: The Necessary Steps :: The Death Dealer [R (2/4)]
Story Title: The Necessary Steps
Chapter Title: The Death Dealer (2/4)
Author: DMitchell1985
Beta: indigochild76
Fact Checker: decadence1
Genre: Drama and a bit of Angst
Rating: R - "adult" language/situations and a couple gruesome descriptions.
Summary: No matter what he did or how many of his brothers were murdered by the Vampires, Lucian's infatuations continue to burrow deeper still into the clan that betrayed him all of those centuries ago. All the while, Selene is forced to face the dissolution of her reality at the hands of an unexpected culprit. Despite all of this, they both take the necessary steps on their parts to bring about the end of the war.
Disclaimer: I don't own any of the canon characters, places, or events that are included in my story. And no, I don't make a monetary profit off of my fiction, only the occasional review.
Warnings: Slash, some porn-ish material (How in the heck did that get in there?!), incest (Lucian/Kraven) and a couple of rather unsavory descriptions of what Lycans can accomplish when they are pissed off.
Spoilers: Underworld and Underworld: Evolution
Pairings: Lucian/Selene, Lucian/Kraven, Lucian/Sonja, Selene/Marcus, Selene/Michael, and Kraven/Erika
Chapter Word Count: 2262
LJ Crossposting: my LiveJournal, uw_fanfic
Author's Notes: This was written for my own Multi-Fandom Unloved Pairings Challenge.
A huge thank you to my beta, indigochild76 for double-checking the fic for me.
I also want to thank decadence1 for fact-checking Richmond Park for me! You're simply divine for taking time out of your schedule to do that for me. I hope that you enjoyed the park enough for the both of us. : )
Chapter List:
Chapter One
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
-
Her hands gripped the steering wheel tighter than usual as she made her way along the unpaved back road. Though the soft earth caused the tires of her car to sink into the ground slightly as she drove along this particular stretch of road, Selene pressed on. It was the only suitable way in and out of the place she'd come to think of as her sanctuary.
She'd known about Richmond Park for years, but she never had any reason to visit it before. Nearly half a decade ago, she and a large group of Death Dealers had converged on the area to wipe out a rogue band of Lycans that had set up camp. They believed that their location in the vast park would present them with the perfect hiding place, but they had been mistaken. One among their own group had given them away at the turn of the first Full Moon by ravaging several occupants of White Lodge, one of the nearby manors, before being shot to death by the local authorities.
News of the attack had not even reached the media circuit when the team had set out, which is just as well, since they did not rely on the human news outlets to inform them of Lycan activities. If they did, the majority of Lycan goings-on would have missed them completely, as humans did not have the most reliable sources, nor did they interpret strange disappearances as they should.
Selene pulled off to the side of the road and parked the car. She had absolutely no right to be here at this time of night. Hell, neither did her car, but she had driven past the turn-off that led to the Broomfield Hill parking lot for non-disabled drivers and headed straight for the entrance gate to cut through the padlock meant to keep out nighttime visitors. She had absolutely no intention of letting small things such as the park's closing time or parking requirements stand between her and her intended destination, the very clearing in which she and the other Death Dealers had entrapped the Lycans.
There was a small hike required to reach the clearing, since it was set back into the woods about one hundred yards away from one of the main road in and out of the park. It wasn't the largest distance between the road or the park's on-site manors, but it was well shaded, had plenty of wildlife to feed off of, and had a source of water that created one of its boundaries.
Selene opened the car door and grabbed her holsters off of the passenger seat as she slid off of her own. There was no telling what might be out in these woods at this time of night; so, it was better to be prepared for nothing than to be shit out of luck for 'something'. She considered locking the door after she slammed it shut, but brushed the thought away. Would 'something' really go after her car and hot-wire it to boot? She gave a faint smile before tucking the keys away in her corset and strapping on her pistols.
She turned, then, to the woods that were as clear to Selene as they would have appeared during the daytime. The nearly full moon and her enhanced vision cut through what would have been a threatening, murky gloom to human eyes. She stepped off the road and onto grass that was still damp from the recent showers, and duly ignored the squelch it gave as her weight pressed down upon it. As she passed the first of the trees and wild bushes, her mind began to both wander backward through time and linger on recent events.
She had felt herself grow increasingly anxious as the night of the Awakening approached with an erratic concept of time. It seemed that there were hours when Selene was absolutely convinced that Amelia would never arrive to Awaken Marcus and take his place in hibernation, causing the entire house to hold its breath until they all collectively passed out. Then, there seemed to be minutes in the past week that appeared to flee the very sight of her, running away with abandon, never to be heard from again. It was maddening, but the anticipation produced an odd sort of giddiness Selene had not felt since the last time that Marcus had been revived.
In spite of the cloudy nature of Selene's relationship with Marcus, it had never once crossed over into anything sexual. This was not for lack of initiative on Selene's end, but due to Marcus' unexplained need to establish a firm boundary between the two of them.
For years, Selene had always wondered in the back of her mind if Viktor had warned Marcus against engaging in a liaison of any sort with her. This was until the night of a diplomatic party thrown in honor of the turning of an Eastern dignitary and Viktor's recent Awakening. It was certainly an occasion to celebrate, as the dignitary would prove to be a viable ally. With one bite from Viktor himself, the dignitary was set to swell their numbers with his own army.
Selene had always practiced the very model upon which discretion was based when she engaged in any of her more enjoyable hobbies; however, she had found herself behaving in a manner that was as transparent to her own sharp gaze as it would have been to anyone else in the mansion the night of the party. She had participated in a lengthy conversation with Marcus for most of the evening, and drank goblet of blood for goblet of blood with the Elder. She remembered the way that he told her the most amusing tales that he had ever shared in all of the time that she had known him. He confirmed many a tawdry rumor, including those that had become something of coven legends.
The two tales that stuck with Selene the longest had been the tale of a certain thousand-year-old Vampire being caught with a pair of human twins, one male and one female, in Viktor's own bed, and that of a two-hundred-year old Vampire who had embarrassed himself terribly upon first meeting Amelia in person.
Selene had enjoyed herself immensely over the course of the evening and she believed that Marcus had done so as well. He had been quite attractive that night, dressed in his customary dark attire, and there were few in attendance who didn't look upon him with some measure of admiration. He had spent the great majority of the night smiling brightly at everyone as the atmosphere melted away most of the hostility with which he usually regarded the coven members. Selene's eyes had scarcely left Marcus' face that evening so long ago, save the time that her eyes met Viktor's over the floorshow of the belly dancers that had accompanied the newest initiate to his welcoming ceremony.
Viktor's expression had been that of curiosity, but of approval as well. Selene knew then in that moment that Viktor had never barred Marcus from seeing her in any capacity. The distance in their relationship was of Marcus' own doing.
She had first been taken aback to learn this, as it was easier to blame protocol, instead of believing that the person you desired did not return your affections. It seemed more dignified somehow.
If their lingering conversations and the future possibility of more had been simply the casualty of circumstance, the situation would have been just another extension of her duty to the coven. Selene thought that perhaps she could learn to push her feelings into a small corner in her mind if this had turned out to be the case. But, it had not.
Selene drew the chilly night air into her lungs and held the breath. The night after the party, she had returned Marcus' aloof attitude, and it appeared that he was relieved to see this take place. This second confirmation had been all that she needed to distance herself from him entirely, with the exception of the duty reports she gave and the assignments he briefed her on.
She replaced her nightly conversations with Marcus with games of chess played across from Viktor well into the early hours of the morning. Though she had never once said the words aloud, she had confessed her sorrow to Viktor silently for many weeks following the incident.
As time passed, the one-sided, silent talks changed to mental sum ups of her daily routine and the grievances that churned inside of her as a direct result of Kraven's continued advances; even the loneliness that grew in her heart where her family had once resided was given voice on several occasions. For his part, Viktor seemed to read through her brooding silence to pinpoint her more difficult nights, as Selene won every match on those evenings.
Selene stepped out into the break in the looming trees and flowering bushes, and released the breath she had been holding. Every round stone and fallen branch was as she had left it, though the grass had grown wilder than ever and the recent storms appeared to have knocked a few more dead branches loose from their trees.
She walked over to the quadruple lines of low, circular stones whose paths ended in the shallow end of the stream. Although this area of Isabella Plantation was allowed to grow a shade wilder than the areas closer to the entrance and manors, Selene had always thought of it as the perfect place to come and think when she needed to remove herself from the house.
She settled herself on the same stone she took up each time she made the journey to the clearing, and allowed her eyes to slide out of focus. The Awakening was to occur the following night, and she would again be faced with Marcus' presence. She had discarded any true feelings that she once held for the Elder, but she did not enjoy their time together as she once did. It had grown stiff and uncomfortable by the time that he went into hibernation at the beginning of Viktor's last rein. She did not look forward to a century of having to avoid making direct eye contact or receiving orders delivered in a clipped tone that would sting the part of her which retained the memories of Before.
She would have to weather all of this along side of her current dilemmas. Lucian was in fact alive, and with him, he had brought a rush of confusion and chaos. Kraven appeared more and more suspect with each passing day. And then, there was Michael.
Selene could not put words to her reaction at seeing Michael that first night, nor the second when she'd rescued him, only to have him promptly return the favor not ten minutes later. There had been something in that first glance, but she had wisely shooed it away. She had been there to complete an assignment, not to get chummy with the human population.
And so, she did just that. She shot, she ducked, and she ran, as she always did. She pursued the Lycan she'd caught in the shoulder with one of the standard rounds and rid the world of its offending presence. There was one less werewolf to attack the public and possibly spread the virus that lived in its body to someone else.
For that reason alone, the evening would have been considered a partial success, had Rigel not been burned inside out by the Lycans' new rounds. But he had been, and her suspicions about the Lycans' ranks had been casually brushed away as though they were nothing more than the ravings of a hysterical woman. She supposed that she might have believed the same of any Death Dealer who reported that they had possibly stumbled onto a den that contained dozens or more Lycans breeding in the sewers. But had she been in charge, she would have at least listened to the person's claims first. Though ravings it might have seemed, Intel could arrive from many an unexpected source.
She should have known that Kraven would not have taken her seriously, not with Erika fawning over him and the rest of the Death Dealers watching his every action. Saving face had always been the more important task to Kraven.
She plucked a smooth, flat pebble from the dirt around her boots and skipped it across the stream's surface. She could recall a time when this simple activity had been one of complete and total pleasure. There hadn't been any worries about her leader possibly betraying his own clan, nor did she lose sleep over deceased Lycans that mysteriously reappeared. There hadn't been any wayward males about mucking up her thoughts either. There had just been her and her sister, and that was all that mattered then.
As the echoes of the water's splashes faded away, there came a rustle from her right. It took her a fraction of a second to roll to her feet. It took another to draw both of her pistols in preparation for whatever emerged from the bushes around her.
She made to take a step closer, but as she did so, a magnificent buck burst through the undergrowth. She breathed a sigh of relief and lowered her weapons when the deer approached the water's edge to take a late night drink.
"I wouldn't put those away so soon, if I were you, Selene," a cold voice spoke up behind her.
-
TBC
Chapter Title: The Death Dealer (2/4)
Author: DMitchell1985
Beta: indigochild76
Fact Checker: decadence1
Genre: Drama and a bit of Angst
Rating: R - "adult" language/situations and a couple gruesome descriptions.
Summary: No matter what he did or how many of his brothers were murdered by the Vampires, Lucian's infatuations continue to burrow deeper still into the clan that betrayed him all of those centuries ago. All the while, Selene is forced to face the dissolution of her reality at the hands of an unexpected culprit. Despite all of this, they both take the necessary steps on their parts to bring about the end of the war.
Disclaimer: I don't own any of the canon characters, places, or events that are included in my story. And no, I don't make a monetary profit off of my fiction, only the occasional review.
Warnings: Slash, some porn-ish material (How in the heck did that get in there?!), incest (Lucian/Kraven) and a couple of rather unsavory descriptions of what Lycans can accomplish when they are pissed off.
Spoilers: Underworld and Underworld: Evolution
Pairings: Lucian/Selene, Lucian/Kraven, Lucian/Sonja, Selene/Marcus, Selene/Michael, and Kraven/Erika
Chapter Word Count: 2262
LJ Crossposting: my LiveJournal, uw_fanfic
Author's Notes: This was written for my own Multi-Fandom Unloved Pairings Challenge.
A huge thank you to my beta, indigochild76 for double-checking the fic for me.
I also want to thank decadence1 for fact-checking Richmond Park for me! You're simply divine for taking time out of your schedule to do that for me. I hope that you enjoyed the park enough for the both of us. : )
Chapter List:
Chapter One
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
-
Her hands gripped the steering wheel tighter than usual as she made her way along the unpaved back road. Though the soft earth caused the tires of her car to sink into the ground slightly as she drove along this particular stretch of road, Selene pressed on. It was the only suitable way in and out of the place she'd come to think of as her sanctuary.
She'd known about Richmond Park for years, but she never had any reason to visit it before. Nearly half a decade ago, she and a large group of Death Dealers had converged on the area to wipe out a rogue band of Lycans that had set up camp. They believed that their location in the vast park would present them with the perfect hiding place, but they had been mistaken. One among their own group had given them away at the turn of the first Full Moon by ravaging several occupants of White Lodge, one of the nearby manors, before being shot to death by the local authorities.
News of the attack had not even reached the media circuit when the team had set out, which is just as well, since they did not rely on the human news outlets to inform them of Lycan activities. If they did, the majority of Lycan goings-on would have missed them completely, as humans did not have the most reliable sources, nor did they interpret strange disappearances as they should.
Selene pulled off to the side of the road and parked the car. She had absolutely no right to be here at this time of night. Hell, neither did her car, but she had driven past the turn-off that led to the Broomfield Hill parking lot for non-disabled drivers and headed straight for the entrance gate to cut through the padlock meant to keep out nighttime visitors. She had absolutely no intention of letting small things such as the park's closing time or parking requirements stand between her and her intended destination, the very clearing in which she and the other Death Dealers had entrapped the Lycans.
There was a small hike required to reach the clearing, since it was set back into the woods about one hundred yards away from one of the main road in and out of the park. It wasn't the largest distance between the road or the park's on-site manors, but it was well shaded, had plenty of wildlife to feed off of, and had a source of water that created one of its boundaries.
Selene opened the car door and grabbed her holsters off of the passenger seat as she slid off of her own. There was no telling what might be out in these woods at this time of night; so, it was better to be prepared for nothing than to be shit out of luck for 'something'. She considered locking the door after she slammed it shut, but brushed the thought away. Would 'something' really go after her car and hot-wire it to boot? She gave a faint smile before tucking the keys away in her corset and strapping on her pistols.
She turned, then, to the woods that were as clear to Selene as they would have appeared during the daytime. The nearly full moon and her enhanced vision cut through what would have been a threatening, murky gloom to human eyes. She stepped off the road and onto grass that was still damp from the recent showers, and duly ignored the squelch it gave as her weight pressed down upon it. As she passed the first of the trees and wild bushes, her mind began to both wander backward through time and linger on recent events.
She had felt herself grow increasingly anxious as the night of the Awakening approached with an erratic concept of time. It seemed that there were hours when Selene was absolutely convinced that Amelia would never arrive to Awaken Marcus and take his place in hibernation, causing the entire house to hold its breath until they all collectively passed out. Then, there seemed to be minutes in the past week that appeared to flee the very sight of her, running away with abandon, never to be heard from again. It was maddening, but the anticipation produced an odd sort of giddiness Selene had not felt since the last time that Marcus had been revived.
In spite of the cloudy nature of Selene's relationship with Marcus, it had never once crossed over into anything sexual. This was not for lack of initiative on Selene's end, but due to Marcus' unexplained need to establish a firm boundary between the two of them.
For years, Selene had always wondered in the back of her mind if Viktor had warned Marcus against engaging in a liaison of any sort with her. This was until the night of a diplomatic party thrown in honor of the turning of an Eastern dignitary and Viktor's recent Awakening. It was certainly an occasion to celebrate, as the dignitary would prove to be a viable ally. With one bite from Viktor himself, the dignitary was set to swell their numbers with his own army.
Selene had always practiced the very model upon which discretion was based when she engaged in any of her more enjoyable hobbies; however, she had found herself behaving in a manner that was as transparent to her own sharp gaze as it would have been to anyone else in the mansion the night of the party. She had participated in a lengthy conversation with Marcus for most of the evening, and drank goblet of blood for goblet of blood with the Elder. She remembered the way that he told her the most amusing tales that he had ever shared in all of the time that she had known him. He confirmed many a tawdry rumor, including those that had become something of coven legends.
The two tales that stuck with Selene the longest had been the tale of a certain thousand-year-old Vampire being caught with a pair of human twins, one male and one female, in Viktor's own bed, and that of a two-hundred-year old Vampire who had embarrassed himself terribly upon first meeting Amelia in person.
Selene had enjoyed herself immensely over the course of the evening and she believed that Marcus had done so as well. He had been quite attractive that night, dressed in his customary dark attire, and there were few in attendance who didn't look upon him with some measure of admiration. He had spent the great majority of the night smiling brightly at everyone as the atmosphere melted away most of the hostility with which he usually regarded the coven members. Selene's eyes had scarcely left Marcus' face that evening so long ago, save the time that her eyes met Viktor's over the floorshow of the belly dancers that had accompanied the newest initiate to his welcoming ceremony.
Viktor's expression had been that of curiosity, but of approval as well. Selene knew then in that moment that Viktor had never barred Marcus from seeing her in any capacity. The distance in their relationship was of Marcus' own doing.
She had first been taken aback to learn this, as it was easier to blame protocol, instead of believing that the person you desired did not return your affections. It seemed more dignified somehow.
If their lingering conversations and the future possibility of more had been simply the casualty of circumstance, the situation would have been just another extension of her duty to the coven. Selene thought that perhaps she could learn to push her feelings into a small corner in her mind if this had turned out to be the case. But, it had not.
Selene drew the chilly night air into her lungs and held the breath. The night after the party, she had returned Marcus' aloof attitude, and it appeared that he was relieved to see this take place. This second confirmation had been all that she needed to distance herself from him entirely, with the exception of the duty reports she gave and the assignments he briefed her on.
She replaced her nightly conversations with Marcus with games of chess played across from Viktor well into the early hours of the morning. Though she had never once said the words aloud, she had confessed her sorrow to Viktor silently for many weeks following the incident.
As time passed, the one-sided, silent talks changed to mental sum ups of her daily routine and the grievances that churned inside of her as a direct result of Kraven's continued advances; even the loneliness that grew in her heart where her family had once resided was given voice on several occasions. For his part, Viktor seemed to read through her brooding silence to pinpoint her more difficult nights, as Selene won every match on those evenings.
Selene stepped out into the break in the looming trees and flowering bushes, and released the breath she had been holding. Every round stone and fallen branch was as she had left it, though the grass had grown wilder than ever and the recent storms appeared to have knocked a few more dead branches loose from their trees.
She walked over to the quadruple lines of low, circular stones whose paths ended in the shallow end of the stream. Although this area of Isabella Plantation was allowed to grow a shade wilder than the areas closer to the entrance and manors, Selene had always thought of it as the perfect place to come and think when she needed to remove herself from the house.
She settled herself on the same stone she took up each time she made the journey to the clearing, and allowed her eyes to slide out of focus. The Awakening was to occur the following night, and she would again be faced with Marcus' presence. She had discarded any true feelings that she once held for the Elder, but she did not enjoy their time together as she once did. It had grown stiff and uncomfortable by the time that he went into hibernation at the beginning of Viktor's last rein. She did not look forward to a century of having to avoid making direct eye contact or receiving orders delivered in a clipped tone that would sting the part of her which retained the memories of Before.
She would have to weather all of this along side of her current dilemmas. Lucian was in fact alive, and with him, he had brought a rush of confusion and chaos. Kraven appeared more and more suspect with each passing day. And then, there was Michael.
Selene could not put words to her reaction at seeing Michael that first night, nor the second when she'd rescued him, only to have him promptly return the favor not ten minutes later. There had been something in that first glance, but she had wisely shooed it away. She had been there to complete an assignment, not to get chummy with the human population.
And so, she did just that. She shot, she ducked, and she ran, as she always did. She pursued the Lycan she'd caught in the shoulder with one of the standard rounds and rid the world of its offending presence. There was one less werewolf to attack the public and possibly spread the virus that lived in its body to someone else.
For that reason alone, the evening would have been considered a partial success, had Rigel not been burned inside out by the Lycans' new rounds. But he had been, and her suspicions about the Lycans' ranks had been casually brushed away as though they were nothing more than the ravings of a hysterical woman. She supposed that she might have believed the same of any Death Dealer who reported that they had possibly stumbled onto a den that contained dozens or more Lycans breeding in the sewers. But had she been in charge, she would have at least listened to the person's claims first. Though ravings it might have seemed, Intel could arrive from many an unexpected source.
She should have known that Kraven would not have taken her seriously, not with Erika fawning over him and the rest of the Death Dealers watching his every action. Saving face had always been the more important task to Kraven.
She plucked a smooth, flat pebble from the dirt around her boots and skipped it across the stream's surface. She could recall a time when this simple activity had been one of complete and total pleasure. There hadn't been any worries about her leader possibly betraying his own clan, nor did she lose sleep over deceased Lycans that mysteriously reappeared. There hadn't been any wayward males about mucking up her thoughts either. There had just been her and her sister, and that was all that mattered then.
As the echoes of the water's splashes faded away, there came a rustle from her right. It took her a fraction of a second to roll to her feet. It took another to draw both of her pistols in preparation for whatever emerged from the bushes around her.
She made to take a step closer, but as she did so, a magnificent buck burst through the undergrowth. She breathed a sigh of relief and lowered her weapons when the deer approached the water's edge to take a late night drink.
"I wouldn't put those away so soon, if I were you, Selene," a cold voice spoke up behind her.
-
TBC