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JOGGING AWAY FROM THE house, I was too restless to return to the lair. As the day wore on, I drifted aimlessly around the city. By late afternoon I finally realized why I was on edge. It was the first night of the full moon. I might not be a true werewolf anymore, but my body seemed to remember what was supposed to happen tonight.
When the sun finally began to sink from the sky, I trudged back towards the building where the undead resided. Spotting Katrina leaving the building just after dark, I faded into the shadows and went still, hoping she wouldn’t see, or sense me. From the stealthy way she was moving, it was obvious she didn’t want to be observed. I’d hoped to sneak back inside before she realized I was missing, but it seemed my caution had been unnecessary.
Left with the choice of returning to our base or following her, my decision was easy. I trailed her at a distance, being careful not to let her see me. She wandered as aimlessly as I had, seemingly without a destination in mind. After a while, she cocked her head to the side when she heard something that drew her attention. Moving with purpose now, she took off so quickly that I lost sight of her.
Following both her scent and our link, I tracked her to an apartment building. She’d used the fire escape to enter an apartment on the fourth floor. Smelling fresh blood even from half a block away, I knew that she’d broken her own rule not to kill any humans. If I didn’t take steps, the bodies would be discovered and we’d be forced to flee again.
Appointing myself to be the Cleanup Crew for our nest, I climbed up the fire escape and entered the main bedroom through the open window. A woman in her late twenties lay on the floor beside the bed. Her throat had been torn open and her skin and clothing were coated in blood.
Bloody bare footprints led me down the hall to the prone form of a man. He’d been on his way to the nursery to defend his child when Katrina had caught him. Blood had sprayed on the wall from the violence of her attack. She’d savaged his shoulder and the bruises on his mouth meant she’d clamped a hand over it to muffle his screams. Death had already claimed him, but he seemed to be staring at the disturbing scene through the doorway in horror.
Katrina stood with her back to me, holding a baby to her chest. Not content with feeding from the parents, she’d decided to decimate the entire family. Her teeth were buried deeply into the tiny infant’s shoulder. The baby was already pale with blood loss and only had a few more seconds left to live.
I crept closer and circled around them until I could see Katrina’s face. She wore an expression that was as close to bliss as the undead could feel. The baby gave a last desperate gasp before it expired. Dropping the infant to the floor, blood dripped from her fangs when she smiled in true pleasure.
A glance inside her mind told me that she’d just relived the moment when she’d tried to kill me. God only knew how many times she’d replayed that moment during the past eighteen years. The last of my illusions that she could ever be anything other than a monster were finally stripped away. I finally admitted to myself once and for all what my mother truly was; remorseless, malignant and evil incarnate.
I’d done my best to try to change her from a coldblooded killing machine into something that might be able to coexist with humans. I now saw that the attempt had been futile. She was a predator and people were her food. All vampires needed to be wiped from the face of the Earth and that included me. Secure in the knowledge that if she died, then so would I, I reached for my gun.
Katrina’s expression of happiness turned to momentary alarm when she opened her eyes and saw the weapon in my hand. “Put your gun away,” she commanded. Believing I had to obey her every word, her fear had already faded.
Ignoring her order, I crossed the floor and pressed the cold steel against the scar on her forehead. “Even for a vampire, you’re sick and twisted,” I said. “You need to be put down.” I didn’t feel sorrow or pain at the thought of ending our lives. Once I pulled the trigger, I’d immediately follow her into oblivion.
“You have to obey me,” she said with a hint of desperation when she realized I hadn’t instantly followed her order. “I’m your master.”
“You might have created me, but you’ll never be my master. It’s time for you to die, Katrina. The world will be a better place without us both.” The moment my finger tightened on the trigger, my vampire rose to stop me. She wasn’t ready to die and she was going to fight for her life.
The gun shook in my hand and Katrina’s momentary terror was replaced with a sly grin. “You can’t do it. You might not be truly undead, but there’s enough vampire in you to make it impossible for you to kill me directly.”
I might not be able to kill her, but I didn’t have to stay and pretend to be her minion any longer. I didn’t care whether Mark and the team learned of the deaths that she’d just caused. I was done with being her servant.
Leaving through the window, I put my gun away and raced into the night. Spotting a church, I deliberately blanked out my thoughts as I headed towards it. I had one more trick left and I didn’t want my vampire to realize what I was about to do.
Running parallel to the church grounds, I suddenly veered across the road. Pain burned me from the inside out at being so close to the holy structure, but my agony was about to become a lot worse. Launching myself into the air, I shouted in denial when my wolf came forward. Instead of entering the hallowed ground and bursting into silver flames, I hit an invisible barrier and was thrown backwards.
I landed flat on my back on the sidewalk, stunned but unhurt. My wolf had risen and my vampire had fled deep inside my head, which had saved me from being fried. My vampire was now keeping company with my necromancer. Clearly, my alter egos were conspiring to keep me alive. Before I could try again, I found myself on my feet and running back towards our lair.
My wolf was fully in charge even though I was still in my human form. I’d never been controlled like a puppet before. It was an unsettling experience to have my body taken over so completely. Entering the building through the door on the roof, I headed for my room and stripped down to just a t-shirt and jeans. I left everything else behind and headed outside again before anyone knew I’d been there.
Too disinterested to care about what my wolf had planned, I was forced to leave the city and headed to the wilderness. I wasn’t surprised when I ended up near the PIA compound in the mountains. This was where I’d first turned into a werewolf and it was natural for her to return to her favorite hunting grounds.
Deep in the forest and far from civilization, my head tilted back and watched in fascination as the moon rose. It finally reached its ascendency and I was as close as I could get to being shocked when I began to transform. It seemed my vampire wasn’t stronger than my wolf after all. They were equal in strength, which meant I could probably choose which form I wanted to take.
Instead of the usual pain that I suffered during the change, my bones became almost fluid as my body assumed a new form. My clothes tore and fell to the ground in tatters as my back and ribs crackled and popped. My jaw lengthened and my teeth grew into fangs while my hands and feet grew longer and claws sprouted. In seconds, I changed into a form that was similar to a werewolf, but slightly different. My fangs were far longer than usual, as were my claws. My fur wasn’t as long or dense, but it was just as black as always.
Looking around the snowy area with eyes that saw light and shadows far more strongly now, I realized that I’d come home again. With my vampire and necromancer locked away, my emotions had returned and sorrow crashed down on me. This was the last place I wanted to be. I was still a lone wolf, but my ostracism was even worse than that now. I’d turned into something that had never existed before. I’d become an abomination.
As I ran away from the place where I’d first transformed into a monster, rage began to fuel my steps. None of this would have happened if my mate hadn’t left me. With his help, I might have been able to battle the darkness and the vampirism that had taken over my human body. If he hadn’t abandoned me for his pack, we’d still be together now. Even in my wolf form, I couldn’t sense him now that I’d severed our bond. I imagined he was with his chosen pure blood mate, reveling in the happiness that we should have had together.
For three nights, I ran. I couldn’t move as fast in this form, but I still travelled a long way each night before resting during the day. Subconsciously, I knew where I was going, but it wasn’t until I entered West Virginia that I acknowledged my motives. I wasn’t here to try to win my mate back. He’d chosen someone else and we’d never be together again. He’d walked away from me, condemning me to become a freak.
The necromancer inside me whispered into my mind. She told me that I would be overwhelmed and torn apart in seconds if I barged directly into the middle of the pack to confront my mate. The night was running out and it would soon be dawn. I listened to the plan that the darkest part of me proposed. Rage had fueled me this far, but now it was time for calm.
Staying far enough away that I wouldn’t be detected, I listened to the distant howls of the pack of hunting werewolves. I was no longer tied to my former mate, but I knew he was close. My ears pricked up when I heard a muted howl that was different from the others. It sounded hollow, forlorn, desperate and alone. It also didn’t sound like any werewolf I’d ever heard before. He knew I was close and he was calling for me. I was no longer tied to him, but he was somehow still bound to me.
It took every scrap of willpower that I possessed not to run to him. The necromancer reminded me that he’d left me and had chosen another. I knew he was in pain and that something was terribly wrong, but I wasn’t here to save him. My plan didn’t involve begging him to take me back. I was here for an entirely different reason. He was going to pay for what he’d done to me.
I was here for revenge.
