Jackson's Vengeance

Chapter 8

Tori’s POV

I watch the sunrise through my window. I have not slept. How could I? I can tell that something huge happened last night. At first, I thought that Jackson had attacked me because of the fight with Iva or because I had lied. I had no idea then I heard the whispers and the way the wolves looked at me. I knew that today things would change for me. Especially since they all knew that I was a genetically modified freak of nature.

I get dressed and go to the meeting hall, I know that Jackson is already there waiting for me, I saw him leave hours ago, but I didn’t have the will to go out and face him. I got my head together and then left my room.

In the hall, the room is tense, I can feel the stress falling of each one, Jackson is sitting at the table, Bruce is at his side as usual. Minnie notices me and says,

“Come sit down dear, it is time to share your story.”

Since the m******e a year ago, I have never talked about what happened and mainly because it hurts too much to speak about it and I try my best to not think about what happened, the things I saw, and how it keeps me up at night. My whole life changed and I didn’t want to face that but now, I need to, I need the wolves to fight with me, I know alone I will never achieve vengeance but together we can stop Frans and I am smart enough to know that numbers will be our greatest strength. That is why I spent the year wondering about the city and its surrounding area to save anyone I could find.

“I belong to the first original vampire family. My family consisted of my parents, my four uncles, and four aunts. How we became vampires is another long story that we don’t need to get into. One of my uncles was an elder and was fond of taking in young ones to teach the way of the vampire, often it would be a human that he found who wanted to be a vampire. Centuries ago vampires, made a peace treaty with all species in the city, back then there wasn’t much but over the years the city grew and evolved. With that evolution came curiosity. More and more humans were interested in vampires and werewolves, more and more wanted the bite of immortality. Some humans thought it was the best thing to happen. They were foolish and didn’t understand the reality of these curses. Anyway, Frans had been one of those curious humans. He would follow the elders around and try to convince them that he could be useful to them. Soon he won over one of them and started to serve him. Their bond grew and Frans portrayed a love for his master which was unbelievable. He lived as a human amongst the vampires and his master protected him from those that didn't approve and wanted him out. During this time I was away, I was sent away to learn the art of healing, it was believed that every species group needed a healer that understood their genetics. I choose to learn about everything under the sun, I figured if I am not going to die a natural death then I might as well put that time to good use. When I returned I heard about Frans, by that time his master had changed him, he wanted to be changed. My father who was our ruler had one very important rule, we never change anyone unless we have to. My uncle the elder believed that he had to change Frans because he knew too much about us, that was his greatest mistake. Once Frans was changed, he left the coven and no one knew anything about where he was or what happened to him.

Then a year ago he came back, he came back with his coven of vampires, ruthless creatures that took human blood and changed people at the drop of a hat. Frans wanted us to join him, to give him the power to rule over us. He believed himself to be the most powerful vampire that ever existed. He murdered the wolves because he needed their blood, he wanted to create a poison that would kill our coven if we declined his ruling offer. Frans has a healer, more like a witch who likes to experiment, so they captured some of the wolves and brought them back here to this safe house. This was where all the torturing took place, anyway once he had the wolves, he turned most of the humans and those that he didn’t turn he captured for his experiments, finally he came to us. His first order of business was to kill all the elders, he kept my parents alive long enough to make his demands.

“I am here to claim the throne.”

“Take whatever you need, just don’t hurt anyone else.” My father said.

“That is mighty gracious of you.”

“Let us go, Frans, we will find another place.” My mother said.

“Oh no, no, no, no, no!. That will not do! I need subjects to rule over.” He said.

“Fine, just let the woman leave and the men will stay as your subjects.” My father replied.

Frans scanned the room and that was when he saw me for the first time. He walked over to me and took my face in his hand,

“She must be the reason you want the woman to leave!” He said and then walked to my father.

“I tell you what, give her to me as my wife and I will let all of you leave.”

“No, that will never happen.” My father said.

Right there he put a stake through my father’s heart, no one had the time to do anything because one of his henchmen set my father on fire, then he went to my mother,

“You better have a different answer!”

“Never!” My mother said and he did the same to her.

“Well, my dear looks like the choice is yours!”

“I would rather die than marry the likes of you!” I slapped him and he laughed at me.

“Hmmm, it would be a waste to kill a beauty such as you, I have a better idea, how about I change your mind with some torture. Take her away and bring her back when she is ready to say yes.”

I was taken away, they brought me here, for two months they tried to starve me, then they tried to make me drink human blood, but I never broke. Finally, his witch came to get me and started experimenting with my blood, she injected me with the blood of an Alpha she-wolf. I never saw her, I just know that they had killed her, she wasn’t from this pack, I have no idea where she came from. When they mixed my genetics with that of the Alpha, I started to change. Then they threw me into a cage with some wolves, most of them were from this pack, Minnie was one of them. They expected the wolves to kill me or me to kill the wolves but none of that happened. I had no idea that with each day I was losing more and more of my vampire side. Only when they tried to burn me in daylight did they realize that the experiment has worked. I became the first made hybrid of a vampire and werewolf. A pair of wolves from the pack helped me to learn whatever they could teach me, they tried to explain what would happen on the full moon and that I needed to be prepared. They tried to train me mentally. On the day of my first full moon. I reached my full strength as a wolf. Frans came to ask me again and I said no. He ordered them to torture me as a wolf so they poisoned me with wolfsbane, healed me with belladonna, burned me, starved me, and kept me from changing on the full moon. There were so many things he tried but in the end, we found a way to escape and when we did, it was a huge fight, we lost a lot of lives, so many were injured but we got out. We ran for a long time and then we stopped running and when I came back to scout this place they were gone. I figured they would never look for us in their safehouse. I fetched the rest, we modified the place to make it safer for us. We have been hiding out here, while Minnie has been training everyone. This fight isn’t just mine, it's ours and together we can win.”

I look around the room and I can see that things have changed, some feel pity, others feel sympathetic and some feel happy to know the truth. I look at Jackson, his expression is pained. He is conflicted, I can understand why and I can never blame any of the wolves for hating vampires.

“I know you wouldn’t want to trust me, I know you have every reason to hate vampires, but we are not like them, we all lived in peace before. Frans and his henchmen destroyed our lives, our families, and our city. We need to fight as one and we will win!”

Hilda walks over and hugs me, I hug her back. She truly is her mother's daughter.

“I am proud of you,” Minnie says.

“Thank you,” I say.

She has been the closest thing to a family since this whole ordeal began. I look up at Jackson and he says nothing, slowly he stands up and turns to walk away. He whispers something to Bruce and Bruce says,

“We fight together as one!”