Michael looked at Selene from where he sat in the chair across the room. "Did you get Raze to test your blood yet?"
"He took some today while you were talking to the pack. He said it would take him some time to get to it."
"Did he think there was anything wrong?"
Selene shrugged. "He was concerned about how flushed I am and my dizziness, but he didn't really have time to look into it. I'm fine Michael, really."
He wondered if she knew how unconvincing she sounded. He was unused to this humanity that now surrounded her. He was so happy, though, that she finally let her walls down around him. She finally let him in. It gave him somewhat of an energy boost. He smiled. "So…" he said as he got up and walked over to the bed. He sat down next to her. "We have two days all to ourselves. What do you want to do?"
Selene looked at him. She had no idea. That was like asking her what she wanted for her last meal. She thought for a moment. "Want to go for a walk?"
He narrowed his eyes for a moment, but then nodded. "Sure."
The moon shown down brightly on the land below, it was almost completely full. Everything below had a silvery glow under its luminescent glow. Michael and Selene walked silently through the countryside together, in stride with each other. The lights of the city were long behind them as they covered ground with no apparent purpose or destination.
Michael looked at her. She looked even more beautiful in the moonlight. It saturated her pale skin and gave glow to her eyes. He sighed to himself contently. Yeah, that's right. I'm with her. He couldn't help but say to himself.
Selene broke the silence. Normally she would have been happy to keep things quiet between her and Michael, but right now, it just didn't fit. It was deafening to her. She had been stuck in silence with herself for so long, she didn't want to stay quiet anymore.
"You know, besides the expanding of the city, the land hasn't changed much in all the centuries we've been here." She said to her companion, her lover.
"Did you grow up far from here?"
She shook her head. "No. Infact we're not far from the house now. Our property was very big. My father was a wealthy man back in those days. He had the best-bred horses around. The city was so small back then. It wasn't even a city, not by today's standard at least. It was a large village with lots of stores. It was highly urbanized for our time. But my father refused to move us there. He said that my sister, brother, and I would grow up knowing what it was like to breathe fresh air. As we were growing up, the village got bigger and bigger. My father resented it, but I found it interesting. All those people living in such a small space, it was something completely new to me. But I'm glad my father kept us out in the country. It turned out a lot of things I learned as a child helped me with my death dealer training."
Michael took it in. He knew they should probably get off the topic of Selene's family being slaughtered and everything else leading to Viktor. He decided to stay neutral. "What were you like as a kid?"
Selene smiled at the bittersweet memory. "I was out of control. I was always wondering around without my parent's permission. I would sneak off with my brother and we would run around everywhere, always exploring. My father always scolded me for it. He said it wasn't lady-like. He said I should be more like my sister. But it never bothered me much. He would yell at me, and then I'd go out and do it again. I had more friends who were boys than I did girls. I was constantly dirty. My mother always hated having to give me baths. I didn't like having to contain myself just to fit an image that was set for me. I loved climbing trees, riding the horses, and playing pretend games with my brother."
Michael smiled. He imagined Selene as a little girl running through these same woods they were walking through now. He noticed that they had fallen on a path. It was worn, but it looked as if it had been unused for quite a while. There was enough of a definite path, but there were also dead leaves covering it and shrubs over growing around it. They walked for a minute longer before the trees gave way to a clearing. There were open fields laid before them, and an old house that stood stoically against the night sky. It hadn't been used in decades, maybe even centuries just by the look of it. Michael was impressed as to how it was still standing. It seemed like every time the wind blew it creaked and looked as if it would fall over. But it still stood strong, rebelling against the weather and the ages.
Selene had stopped now and was taking it in. The house, along with the rest of the property and terrain, possessed the silver lining of the moon. She looked upon the place of her past, letting the memories come back to her.
"As I grew older into my teen years, I came upon myself. I calmed down considerably, much to my parents relief. I came to the "lady-like" form that was expected of me. I stopped going on my adventures with my brother, and instead I would go outside to read or draw. But I still loved going out, and when he could convince me, my brother would take me out for hikes across the land." Selene smiled to herself. "Adam…" she said with a sigh. "He and I always got along more than he and Elizabeth, or Elizabeth and I, for that matter. She thought the same as my father, that I should act tamer like she was. But she was also envious of me that I had so many friends that were boys. But I was "getting better" in their eyes. I traded my pants I stole from my brother for the skirts and dresses that were expected of me."
Selene led Michael in a steady spiral around the clearing. She was clearly putting off going to the house for as long as possible.
"Later on in life, Elizabeth met her future husband, Jacob. Their love seemed like something out the romance novels I had read. They were so happy. I had never been envious of her for anything, until she fell in love. It's not that I wanted to steal Jacob from her, but I just wanted to know the kind of love they shared. I had only been in love once before that, but nothing ever happened. A year later they were married, a year after that Elizabeth told me she was pregnant, a year after that I was an aunt to two beautiful little girls. They were a spitting image of my sister. They shared her beautiful brown hair and her deep brown eyes, her wonderful rosy skin. She was an image of beauty, just like my mother was. I was awkwardly tall with very pale skin. I couldn't go out into the sun without burning up. I always had to stay in the shade, always had to have an umbrella. I had an athlete's body where as they were petite and fragile. But after a while I stopped comparing myself to them. So the twins grew up and I became that wonderful aunt. The one who spoils you and lets you get away with everything. And for a while, everything was great. And then Viktor set his sights on our farm, our quiet little peaceful version of a blissful reality. And we both know how that turned out."
Almost as if on cue, they came by the front of the house, where an ugly blood spot had seeped into the stone steps leading up to the porch. Michael winced at the sheer enormity of it. There had to have been at least nine pints of dried blood there. The normal human body can only hold eight to ten pints of blood. He remembered back to Selene's words that night in the safe house. "My father died outside, trying to fend them off." This must have been where her father bled out. It made him want to throw up. Viktor didn't even kill her father for the blood; he did it for the sheer thrill of the slaughter. Before he could loose himself and hurl though, Selene took him by the hand and led him away. They walked through the fields to a hill where the slope curved enough so that you could lie back and look at the moon. She sat down on the ground and laid back and looked up at the moon.
"This was my favorite place. I would spend so many nights out here. That night I couldn't sleep. I thought about coming out here to lie down. If I had I would have missed the whole thing. But I was stubborn. I stayed in bed and tried to get myself to sleep. Eventually it worked. I was only out for an hour before I heard the screams. I was always unsure if I would have been better off coming out here and missing the whole thing." She paused and looked to Michael, who was still standing. "I'm pretty sure it was worth it now." She smiled at him, reaching out for his hand.
He smiled down at her. He took her hand in his and lay down next to her.
She took in a steadying breath. She felt at peace now. Normally talking about her past was shattering to herself, to her mind and memories. But it felt good to share herself with Michael. It felt good to know he was listening.
Selene now looked about Michael, whose blue eyes held an eerie tint in the moonlight. "What about you, Michael?"
He looked to her. "What about me?"
She smiled at him. "What were you like when you were a child?"
He smiled back. "I was a quiet kid. I was kind of shy and I didn't really allow myself to have friends. I was actually pretty anti-social. I preferred to stay inside while my brothers went out and played. I would be reading a book or watching TV. But I was definitely smarter than the both of them put together. The only time I ever really allowed myself to have fun outside was when I was out here with my uncle over summer vacation. We'd go hunting and fishing and outdoors, manly things like that. Fishing I could handle, seeing as how I never caught anything. I never really liked the hunting though. I didn't like taking away an innocent creature's life when it did nothing wrong, as cheesy as that sounds. My father always thought there was something wrong with me because I never acted like my brothers. Needless to say I was the butt of many jokes. But luckily, my mom was much more accepting of me. I loved my mom. She was so beautiful, so full of light and happy energy. She died when I was sixteen from breast cancer. She was fighter though. She didn't go without giving it all she had. My brothers all gravitated away from home after high school. Daniel moved out to Los Angeles to become a cop, Gabriel joined the US Army, and I went to medical school for a while. Then I met Samantha, and well, you know what happened from there."
Selene mentally winced as she remembered the story Michael had told her about the woman she had seen in the pictures of his apartment. She decided to change the subject. "What were your brothers like?"
Michael shrugged. "They were both the polar opposite of me. They were your typical all-American boys who grew up to be your typical all-American teenagers. Daniel, we could tell, was always destined to be a city boy. There was no doubting it. I just always thought it would be New York City. He was a very adventurous kid. It almost killed him once. He was ever the stud, though. He went through girlfriends like toilet paper. He brought a new girl home every week. Eventually I got tired of remembering their names. In high school he was a jock if I ever saw one. He had soccer in the fall, track in the winter, and baseball in the spring. Everyone loved him. His friend got in a car crash when a drunk driver hit his car. That really woke him up to the world. His friend died, and Daniel committed himself to practicing criminal justice for revenge for his friend. So after high school he went out to California to study criminal justice and became an LA cop. I actually think he got moved up to SWAT last year.
"Gabriel was probably Daniel's better half. He was broader, taller, older, and stronger. They were always butting heads with each other while I just kind of hung back and watched. Gabriel found his high school sweetheart in freshman year. They got married three years ago and have three kids. It was like he was born to be prom king, so it was no surprise that he was the most popular guy in school. He was a major football star, but when the fall season was over he took up wrestling in the winter. Varsity didn't even cover it. He was way better. He was pretty smart too. I never understood why he decided to go into the Army with all of his potential. Last I heard he was coming home from Iraq."
Selene listened with interest. Michael a quiet and shy kid? Yeah, she could definitely see that. But if you compare that with the hybrid leader she was looking at right now, and there was a definite difference. Oh yeah. I guess Lucian and I had a lot to do with that. She couldn't stop herself from thinking about Michael's life if he had never had this destiny. "What do you think you'd be doing right now if this had never happened to you?" she asked before she could stop herself.
He looked at her and sighed. "I'd probably be at the hospital trying to do what ever I could to save someone's life. Or I'd be at my rat hole apartment staring at my ceiling, trying to sleep, and wondering what the hell I was doing." Michael took Selene's hand gently in his own. "I'd be miserable." He kissed her knuckles lightly. "I'm glad I'm here with you now, Selene."
She hesitated for speaking. She was glad too, wasn't she? Yes, I'm glad he's here, but I'm not glad this had to happen to him. Instead of speaking, Selene leaned over and pressed her lips to Michael's. A gentle kiss, full of love and understanding, one that he returned.
They pulled apart and just lay under the moon for a while, fingers entwined.
A while passed, and Michael couldn't keep the question at bay any longer. "Selene, what about my brothers? Sooner or later they'll realize I've disappeared from the face of the earth. What if they start looking?"
Selene bit her lower lip. "They won't find anything, Michael. Your apartment's been cleared out, your job's been taken over by another intern, and you had no friends here…"
"But Gabriel has a high standing with the army, what if he finds something?"
Selene shook her head. "He won't. You're a ghost Michael. Just a ghost. Like me. Like all of us."
Michael became silent again. He tried to deal with the reality of it all. There really was no going back. Not that he wanted to. He had friends who had mad a family around him, and he had people who depended on him. That's more than anyone could say back home. And he had the woman he loved. He had Selene. He had all he needed. But it was still hard. "I didn't even get to say goodbye…"
Selene nodded in understanding. "Well, if it's any consolation, neither did I."
Michael looked at her. He thanked whatever force in the world it was that sent him Selene to the subway station that night. He wasn't sure he could get through this without her, or if without her he'd even still be alive. He doubted it.
"Selene?" he asked.
"Hmm?" she replied, soaking up the moonlight with her eyes closed.
"Do you think we can go visit Gabriel before we go plunging into this war with Marcus? He was always cared for me."
Selene opened her eyes and looked at Michael hard. "Michael, you can't-"
He cut her off. "I won't say anything about what's happened, happening, or going to happen. I just, I just want to see him. I want him to know that I'll be okay."
Selene looked at him, very unsure.
"Please Selene? Wouldn't you want to say goodbye if you knew you could?"
Okay, he had her there. But she wasn't sure he understood how risky this entire idea was. This was practically begging the world to know their secret, practically inviting the humans to find out exactly what goes bump in the night. "Michael, I don't know…"
"Please Selene? I need this." He looked at her, almost pleadingly
I would want to say goodbye too. She sighed. She pulled out her cell phone and hit a number on speed dial. She waited for the ringing to cease and a voice to answer.
"Yo?" came Aubrey's voice.
"It's Selene."
"What's up?"
"Can you arrange for a chopper to take Michael and I over to America?"
Michael smiled and mouthed a thank you, kissing Selene's free hand.
"To where exactly?" Aubrey sounded interested, but he didn't ask why.
Selene looked to Michael. "To where exactly?"
"They moved to New Jersey." Michael replied.
"New Jersey." Selene echoed into the phone.
"It'll be here by the time you guys get back." Aubrey said, sounding distracted now.
"Thanks. See you soon." Selene closed the phone and slipped it pack into the pocket of her trench coat. She looked to Michael. "Let's go."
Michael smiled and kissed Selene passionately. "Thank you, so much. You have no idea how much this means to me."
He got to his feet and pulled Selene to hers. He started away, but Selene turned and looked back to look at what used to be her home. She cast a glance to the almost full moon and sighed. This had every possibility of going horribly wrong. "You're welcome." She mumbled as she turned away and followed Michael back to the den.