by Megan Parker
Even if they weren’t fully aware of what that purpose was.
He sensed the pack’s leader as he stepped towards him from the side and he smirked. “Having fun, Isaac?” he glanced over and shook his head, clucking his tongue, “My my… a vampire, eh? Is she as good as she looks?”
“Leave her out of this!” He snarled, stepping towards him before adding, “And leave us out of this.”
“Oh no, my friend! I am far from being done with you and yours! You see, The Council has put a call out on the Clan of Vail. It seems that those of my blood are lacking in family values, and I need your pack to take them out. All of them.” He smirked, “including your little auric girlfriend.”
Isaac snarled and shook his head, clenching his fists and preparing to attack, “My pack has done plenty for The Council! We will have no more of your orders!” He growled again as his skin started shifting in his anger as he advanced another step.
“I’m not presenting this as a choice, therion! This is a command, and if you refuse a command from The Council—The Council that you’re sworn to obey—then your pack will suffer the consequences of your decision.” Isaac roared and lunged at Keith, who laughed and dodged the attack before pinning the therion against a nearby tree and extending his fangs.
“I would like nothing more than a reason, dog! Give me that reason, and I will do this my way, by killing you and taking your pack by force! It was a courtesy to ask you nicely, but clearly my hospitality is not appreciated. If you still want to defy us, I ask that you not waste any more of my time. I am, after all, in the middle of planning my next move.”
“Th-then mo… move… to Hell!”
Keith tightened his grip, “Care to repeat that?” he snarled, “I will not ask again, Isaac! Either you obey or you die! Now are you going to do as I say?”
“Y-yes…” Isaac growled in defeat, still struggling to breath past Keith’s grip.
“Good dog.” Keith stepped back and let him drop, “You earned yourself a biscuit!” he snickered at his own joke and turned away, “Au revoir, Rover!”
The bastard vampire disappeared, followed shortly after by his greasy, synthetic stink, and Isaac let his shoulders sag once he was certain that he wasn’t being watched. Feeling suddenly very exhausted, he leaned against the nearby tree and tried to clear his head. And while he didn’t want to condemn his pack—his family—to any more chaos, he didn’t know if he could ensure their safety if it meant going against Zoey, perhaps even killing her…
Though it had only been a short time, he couldn’t bring himself to do anything that would cause her harm.
He shuddered at the thought and cupped his hand over his heavy eyes, trying to massage away a growing headache.
“Hey, Isaac!” Zoey’s voice chimed from a short distance away, “You alright?”
He dropped his hand and sighed, “Yeah, I’m fine. Just fine.”
“No, you’re not.” She stepped towards him, her stride filled with more confidence and purpose than he was used to seeing from her, “Tell me what’s wrong!” She walked around him as he tried to turn his back to her, her unrelenting blue eyes filled with determination and worry for him as she placed her hand on his cheek.
He growled and turned his face away from her touch; not feeling worthy of it after considering Keith’s offer. He wasn’t sure he ever would again. And yet, when he turned his face back to hers, drawn in by his own needs, all he could see was the hurt in her eyes, and he saw that it didn’t matter what he did. Either way she would be forced to suffer for his choice. He bit his lip and looked down, not wanting to make the decision.
Not now…
Not ever!
“Please! I told you I’ll be okay, Zoey.”
“No, you said you were okay! So what’s all this talk of going to be okay?” She frowned, shaking her head, “Isaac… please.”
He sighed and put his hands on her shoulders. For her it would seem like a reassuring gesture, but the reality was that it was a simple way to keep her held back. “You should go home to your clan for the night. They’ll be worried, and we can’t afford to be found out. Not like this.”
“Why won’t you tell me? I thought…” she shook her head, tears welling in her eyes, “Please don’t do this!” she shot him a sudden glare, “I don’t want to have to go into your head and find out for myself! But if you won’t tell me then you leave me with no—”
He frowned, he couldn’t keep her and he sure as hell didn’t want to hurt her anymore, but if he didn’t get her to leave—get her to stay away from him and his secret—then both they and their comrades would be in danger. He shook his head and let out a small growl as he turned his shifting eyes to hers, hoping the bestial glare and animal sound would be enough to sway her. “There’s a surprise!” he spat, baring his teeth as they shifted in his skull, “A vampire being a leech!” he sneered, “You think I’d tell you anything?” scoffing, he shook his head and turned away so she wouldn’t see his tortured features. Knowing that his aura would give him away, he focused on the rage he had for Keith and hoped it would provide the same effect, “We are enemies! We were never meant to be together! You were just convenient; a toy for me to pass the time! And though it was fun while it lasted, Zoey, I’ve gotten bored. Playtime is over! Now go home!”
The air went suddenly cold and Isaac had to force himself not to look. Zoey was strong, there was no doubting that, and if she was responsible for the drop in temperature than it was obvious he’d struck a nerve. “You’re lying!” she growled, the air around him kicking up his hair and throwing it in his face, “You think you can hide it from me? I can tell; even without looking I can tell! I know we’re enemies, Isaac, I know we shouldn’t be together! But that doesn’t matter; not to either of us! When I’m with you, I feel right! I don’t care about this war or what I’m supposed to feel! I don’t even care what the others at the clan would think! For once in my life I’m being selfish and—dammit, Isaac!—I want to be with you!”
Isaac stared at her, blinking against the wave of fury and passion that had just been dumped on him. Biting his lip, he frowned as he struggled to keep his eyes on hers, trying to figure out what she was thinking.
“Fuck!” he sighed and shook his head, feeling his own expression betray his attempts to drive her away, “What am I going to do with you?”
“Well, you still need to earn my forgiveness for what you said.” She said, “So you might want to start by kissing me.”
He grinned and licked his lips, “With pleasure.”
Hooking his hand behind her head, he pulled her face to his and pressed his lips to hers with all the ferocity of a predator finding a meal. She moaned against his mouth, driving him to pull her closer to his body until the space between them was nothing but a vulgar memory. Her body fit his perfectly! Every contour and every crevice seemed to exist to allow the other to occupy it. She whimpered as he ran his hands across her sides, tracing her form with his palms. Using his wandering hands and her small body to his advantage, he lifted her easily from her feet and pulled her body on top of him.
“O-oh! Isaac!” She blushed.
Blushing, but not complaining; not struggling or resisting or rejecting.
With that, they both held on tight to the other as they joined in the bliss of the night.
Their forbidden embrace holding them strong.
Isaac yawned as he woke up on the forest floor, finding himself tangled with Zoey’s still-sleeping body. He smiled warmly and worked on unraveling their limbs and set her gently against the tree as he stood up and walked to the nearby lake to get a drink.
“So good to see that my demands haven’t swayed your interest in that vampire bitch! I hope that…” he scoffed, “… acquainting yourself with her body won’t prove to be distracting in the long run.” Keith’s mocking voice called from behind him.
“Get out of here! I already said I wasn’t going help you anymore and I meant it!” Isaac growled and turned to face him as hi
s body began to shift.
“Oh I don’t think so, Isaac! I’m not done with you yet!” Keith grinned and stepped forward. As Isaac focused to transform his body he suddenly felt himself gripped in an invisible force that began to crush him. Unable to fight against the force of Keith’s aura as it squeezed tighter and began to weave more and more through his body and mind, he cried out in agony. “You and your pack will fight for me! There is no other option for you!” He smirked and stepped closer, “You see, I don’t need you to make the order; I just need your body! And, as I’m sure you’re beginning to realize, your body is very, very easily controlled. Now, you can choose to play along and do as you’re told, or I can hollow out your head and make you do as you’re told! The outcome, either way, is the same, but I’m sure you’d rather not let me have all the fun, am I right?”
Isaac growled and, despite the pain, glared at him, “You couldn’t control me if you—”
Keith glared, “Am. I. Right?” he tightened his aura’s hold on the therion and began to pry into his mind, unlocking all the barriers and restraints in Isaac’s mind until…
Isaac settled, no longer struggling or snarling. “Yes, Keith. Quite right, indeed.”
“That’s a good boy!” Keith smiled at his own success and chuckled as he set Isaac down. “Now be off! There’s work to be done!”
“Yes. Of course.” Isaac bowed his head and started towards his pack.
Watching the therion disappear into the forest, Keith nodded to himself. The plan was coming together beautifully! Now there was just the simple business of Vail’s takeover. Satisfied that his work in the woods was finally done and he could be free of it, he turned away and started towards the city.
“Time for a family reunion, sis.”
Serena sighed behind the far-too-fancy desk in the far-too-large room she had been given by her far-too-hospitable clan. Everything, the whole “welcome back, princess, oh how you’ve been missed”-scene that everybody—even those who hadn’t been with Vail long enough to even remember her—seemed to be playing by, felt forced. Just a synthetic comfort. No different than the fake blood they all gleefully guzzled down just because it rid them of the guilt of tapping a real vein for sustenance.
And so there she sat.
Alone in a sea of scripted loyalty…
… behind a still-too-fancy desk!
“Goddam thing’s bigger than my cabin!” she grumbled, casting an accusing glare at the massive portion of polished mahogany that was not hidden under the old letters that Zane had offered her several days earlier after their chat in the infirmary.
Several days…
And already the tides of the calm-though-scripted sea were beginning to shift.
In only a few days Zane had become nearly non-existent, growing evermore distant with each passing day. Furthermore, in that same time, Zoey had become scarce around the clan’s headquarters, and any time that she was around she seemed to be distracted; lost in her own world and leaving Serena behind in the gloom of reality to rot behind a desk.
A god-damned, stupid, worthless desk!
Groaning, she looked down at the letters that her father had been keeping before his death once more and deciphering, as she had each and every time she offered the pages her attention, nothing from them! Tapping her index finger against the wood—hoping that, maybe, she could “accidentally” gouge a piece and put some personality on the desktop—and frowned at another batch of guilt that grew in her mind like an ivy that throttled the life out of every other thought she had. Despite her many years of convincing herself otherwise, she could no longer blame her father for what had happened. It had never been Gregori’s fault. Not really! Rather, it had just been a series of shitty circumstances that she’d blamed on him; the easiest target to project her personal need for a source to all of it. She sighed, wishing again that she could’ve had the chance to apologize to the bastard before he was killed.
Zane had explained that her father’s death had been Keith’s doing, and there was no doubt at this point that he was also their mother’s murderer. And, with all this new knowledge—this new knowledge that had been thrown into the spotlight—she had absolutely no idea what to do or where to begin. Instead, as she took her head into her hands and trying to control her jagged breaths, she focused on a far simpler and far more pressing task:
“Do. Not. Cry!” she whispered to herself, “Not even one goddam tear or I will—”
Are you about to threaten yourself for wanting to cry? Devon’s voice chimed behind her as his warmth encompassed her. You know that it’s okay to cry, right? Just like those cheesy after-school specials preach; ‘don’t bottle it in’ and all that jazz.
She faked a smile, wishing that she could lean against him but knowing she’d only find warm air where there should have been flesh. Sighing, she looked down sadly and tapped harder at the desk.
Don’t worry so much! It’s like you said, we’ll find a body soon. Devon said.
“I hope so,” she sighed, “But at least I’m not finding my own food, right?”
He nodded. Devon had always had a distaste for her feeding on humans, so being in the clan, where she was supplied with all the “blood”—if she could really call it that—she needed, must have been a relief to him. Smiling at his reaction, she found herself wondering if Zane felt that same way about their feeding habits, but quickly shook those thoughts away.
What’s on your mi— Devon started to ask before suddenly disappearing, along with the warmth and his ghostly influence on her aura.
Startled by the sudden silence, Serena started to call out to him but stopped when she heard laughing from the door.
Growling, she turned towards the door and positioned her hands out as her aura shifted into the shape of a bow in her grip, holding it at the ready for the intruder on the other side. With the laughter growing clearer, an auric beam appeared in the middle of her “weapon” and she drew it back like an arrow—following the movements and habits from her archery training—and leveled it at the door.
“Get out of here, Keith!” She shouted.
“Oh my! Ouch! Is that the greeting I deserve, my dear sister! No hugs or tears of joy to see your long lost brother?” Keith smirked.
“Go to Hell, you prick! You haven’t been lost nearly long enough!” She growled as she ‘fired’ at him.
Side-stepping the purple beam of light as it collided with the wall, Keith smirked. “Hmm, tempting! But I’d rather not.” His own, stronger aura shot out and grabbed her own as she moved to retrieve the “arrow”. “However,” he laughed as he held out his hand and an auric bolt of his own shot back at her and slammed into her chest, “since you seem so taken with the place, you’re welcome to take my place!”
The force of the impact knocked the wind from Serena’s lungs and the ground from beneath her feet, and she cried out as she fell back before everything turned black.
Smoke was already filling the entire building as Zane rushed through the halls, slamming on every door he passed and warning others to head to the main hall for evacuation instructions. The panic in the halls was becoming stifling, and even without an aura he could feel the combined energies making the hazy air crackle. Finally, he reached Serena’s room and, not about to waste any time, kicked in the door and growled as a cloud of smoke poured from the opening and into his face.
“Serena? Serena!” he rushed in and began scanning the room through burning eyes, “God-fucking-dammit! Serena! Answer me!”
A short ways to his left a breathy cough and a stifled whimper sounded and he honed in on it, starting towards the source.
Then the beast called.
Crying out in pain as he tried to hold it back, his vision turned red and fell to the floor; Serena still unconscious several feet from him. Reaching out to pull her to him, he cringed as the bones in his arms began to fracture and lengthen all at once. Trying to pull himself together to reach Gregori’s daughter, he shrieked out in pain as his back lurched
forward. He growled, seething in pain as he continued to fright to get to Serena. If she was truly special—if the beast saw anything in her that would give him the chance to force it to stop—then he had to reach her.
Both of their lives depended on it!
“G-god damn you!” he gritted against the pain as he struggled to fight the change, “I… I know you can f-f-fucking hear us!” he growled and shook his head, “Me! You can hear me! You can hear—AHH! Shit!—hear me… and you sure as shit can understand!” trying to ignore the violent shift of his organs he fought to crawl closer, “And… I swear on everything I hold sacred; if you allow her to die then I’m going after her!” the change slowed and the pain numbed. He smirked through his agony and nodded, “Y-yea? Don’t like that, huh? Not having a body put a damper on your fucking plans? Try to see how much death and destruction you bring as fucking worm food, you dumb bastard! You need me and we need her! Now… let… me… GO!”
The pain hit him like a semi-truck and knocked him to the floor. Every centimeter of his body burned and ached and throbbed and stung as everything shifted at once.
And all he could do was smile.
“Th-thank you!” Though it was excruciating, he could feel his body shifting back; the beast working overtime to put him back together fast enough to save her! Nodding as the torture subsided, he pulled himself up, “We’ll settle this later, asshole!”
With nothing left to hold him back, he rushed forward and scooped Serena’s body from the floor with ease before retreating back into the halls to escape the growing flames.
As he turned a corner and broke through a curtain of fire he was met head-on by a massive creature as it lunged at him. Before he could react, both of them were thrown back and through the wall behind them. Zane roared as the layers of mortar and plywood and drywall and electrical wiring shattered and snapped around him as he struggled to protect Serena’s body in the process.
