It was a quiet day, the wind howled moving the curtains back and forth with its powerful blows, and not soon after it started raining, Jade watched from the window alcove as the first few drops of water dripped down the leaves. It had been almost eight months since she was taken away from the pack. She missed Adonis, Adryan, Violet and everyone from the pack every day. She also often finds herself thinking about the weird mate bond she has with Darius. She has heard stories of werewolves getting second-chance mates, but that was only if they get rejected by their mate or one of them dies, what was even weirder in her case was that she had a mate already and she was a werewolf mated to a vampire.
Feeling her stomach growl from hunger she decides to go down to the kitchen herself. Over the past few months, Jade had built up the courage to do things on her own, at first she was sceptical to go out of her room in fear of encountering a vampire but now she finds the hallways clear whenever she steps out, and she was hundred per cent sure that Darius had something to do with it.
Things were still weird with him, often they’d eat together, and sometimes he would ask her how her day was going or if there was anything she wanted, often she didn’t know how to reply to his questions.
There were moments too where she felt a mixture of sadness and pity for him, often she would stare at him, and just find him to be the loneliest person she has ever met. Perhaps that might be one of the reasons why she joins him during meal times, she couldn’t help but feel sad imagining him sitting alone in that huge room and table, eating alone by himself.
Jade finishes making herself a sandwich when a sudden blood-curdling scream halts her next motions. She thought it might’ve been a figment of her imagination until she hears another scream, her ears perking up at the sound, unconsciously her feet start moving on their own accord, following the sound. Walking, her footsteps carry her towards the storehouse which happened to be next to the kitchen, she comes across a wooden door that looked like it had been abandoned, or either locked up. Another small scream catches her attention, trying to twist the knob a few times, and it opens. Spiral staircases greeted her vision. Staring up, it seemed like the spiral stairs were never-ending.
There was a certain time when she couldn’t find Darius in the entire mansion, there were times were she tried asking someone and following him, but neither of them helped since whoever she asked to disappeared the next second and Darius always somehow evaded her pursuit. She always had a feeling that he was up to something big, it was just a gut feeling and Jade wanted to find out. Hoping to find answers, she starts to climb the stairs.
—
A male figure was chained to the operating table, and a huge machine was overhead, with multiple tubes connecting to the person’s brain, spine, stomach and hands. A few doctors with their lab coats and masks surrounded the figure, some with a tablet in their hand, occasionally monitoring the ECG and looking back at the tablet.
Darius stares at the scene before him with an expressionless face, Marco who stood beside him, who also has been working on this experiment for years turns to face Darius.
“You know you still have time to back out of whatever this is right?!” Marco spoke something that has been on his mind for quite some time now.
Darius stares down at his covered arms, beneath the cloth was something that he has been hiding for years, black spidery veins spreading along the length of his arm slowly like a disease. This is what happens to a Vampire who never gets mated to their soulmate, this doesn’t happen to every vampire out there, many face different kinds of things, some die, some live a long lonely life, and some lose certain superpowers or emotions after some time.
“I have nothing else to fight for in life and I’m fighting for something I have wished for all my life. If I don’t succeed this is it for me” Darius says, Marcos looks at the man before him, someone who the vampires feared greatly yet deep inside Marcos knew he was the only one Darius could call something close to a friend. No family, no soulmate. Marcos couldn’t imagine how someone could live like that for years.
“If you start this war, it wouldn’t do you or anyone else good. Countless innocent people will lose their lives” Marcos tries to argue but before Darius could speak up someone else does.
__
After climbing the numerous flight of stairs, Jade reaches a place where the interior looks completely different to the rest of the castle. The grey-coloured walls had a rough texture, it looked like the place was a dungeon of some sort. Venturing further inside, the interior changed as well, it looked like the first room she encountered was just to fool people, as you ventured in further, the walls looked white and pristine, CCTV camera’s around most corners, Opening one of the doors, she sees a long hallway ahead, as she walks through the hallways, she notices cages on both sides, most of them was empty except for five, the condition of the cages itself wasn’t good, there were blood and claw marks on the walls, with the cages that had people in it, they looked malnourished, more animal-like or just out of it, one even tried snapping at her through the only small window it had.
Feeling eerie and disgusted, she continues walking, and this time she entered an open space, a large operating room was ahead of her, a thick one-way glass wall which people from outside can see inside but not the other way around, Jade watched as multiple tubes poked out of a machine from that was attached to the ceiling, inserted inside the body of the person lying on the operating table, at certain intervals, the person on the table would convulse as if they were being electrocuted, a few people in lab coats would occasionally fix certain settings, or inject the person with a green strange looking fluid.
Jade was just about to leave the room, when the person on the table who was also chained down, starts to transform into a wolf, but they stop midway through it, causing the doctors around to start panicking and hurry to do something. The half-human and half-wolf-like figure lets out a painful scream before they go silent, Jade watched in shock as the light leaves from its black eyes.
View ageing everything in front of her felt like the missing puzzles of the story were finally fitting into their rightful place. The
Jade’s eyes moved towards a door connected to the open area that looked like a room from where things were monitored, upon closer inspection, the room only had curtains instead of actual doors which made it convenient for her to enter without making a sound.
Upon entering, she spots a familiar figure and an unfamiliar one, standing in front of a glass wall, that had a full view of the operating table, since Jade previously stood opposite to them behind the one-way glass, no one could spot her.
The two of them seemed so deep in their conversation so much so that they didn’t notice her presence, it wasn’t until she heard something the unfamiliar figure say that it caught her attention.
“If you start this war, it wouldn’t do you anyone any good. Countless innocent people will lose their lives” the unfamiliar figure says but before Darius could reply she speaks up, blowing her cover.
“War?” her sudden question catches the attention of both the figures, both of them turn to stare at Jade, Darius with his Violet coloured eyes and the other person with his signature vampire blood-red eyes.
“Jade!” Darius starts to approach her but she evades him.
“Tell me Darius” She moves close to him so that she was looking into his eyes directly “Were you the one doing this crazy experiment for years to create werewolf and vampire hybrids? Killing innocent people from various packs for your sick pleasure?!” he stares back at her silently, which frustrates her further.
“Sick pleasure you say?” Darius finally speaks up, letting out a cold laugh that brings chills to her body
“Jade, do you know what’s the difference between someone who has experienced love and someone who hasn’t like me? I search for it in every nook and cranny, every small gesture and glimpse, with the slightest of touches, I don’t know how to ask for love, I’ve only learned how to search for it everywhere, desperately trying to cling to it until it turns to ashes, I need to have it one way or another and I do not care what stands in my path, because I have felt so fucking hollow inside for years, that I’m dying to feel something, even a small emotion.” his words silencing her, he lifts his shirt sleeve, showing her his blackened arm. Jade’s eyebrows furrow as she sees it. A strange look crossed her features.
Marco tries to step in and stop Darius from saying anything further but Darius motions with his arm to stop.
“This is a curse” he points to himself, “unlike all werewolves, we vampires don’t have fixed soulmates, it’s a blessing if we get one. What about others who don’t get one just because fate decided so…there’s no purpose to our lives, your kind feels emotions because you are half-human, mine? we are walking corpses searching for a purpose and mine is this.” he points to everything around him, the experiments and the lab.
“We can fix this! We can talk it out! There’s no need for a war.” she says, desperately trying to make him understand.
“Fix this?” he repeats her words as if she had uttered something ridiculous. One of his cold hands suddenly caresses her face gently. “If I told you the only way to stop this is if you leave everything behind, your world, your pack, your mate and your son. Would you leave it for me?” Darius asks her even though he knew the answer to his question but looking into her face was like the final nail to the coffin.
“No, you wouldn’t Jade,” he answers for her. “You have been here for eight months, you have felt my touch and my presence, yet you refuse to even acknowledge me as your second mate? See Jade? When this stupid fate decided to give me a mate, she doesn’t even acknowledge me as her mate!! You know I was happy for the first time after a long time when I first felt your presence in your old pack house, I would visit your pack for days, just to catch a glimpse of you, I could never approach you fearing that I might freak you out except for that one time” he looks into her eyes with a half defeated look.
“Except for that one time?” she questions him, trying to skim through her memories from her old pack where she would’ve encountered him. It took a few moments before realization struck her.